222 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



but this was from a plant nurtured in England. 

 Our English-grown Alpines are at a great dis- 

 advantage as compared with their untravelled 

 relatives. In England we may have a fall of 

 snow that will rest possibly a week or so on the 

 ground. Then a thaw supervenes and everything 

 is drenched with almost icy-cold water, and to this 

 succeeds a sharp frost, and then possibly a day so 

 mild and balmy that even though it be but January 

 we have splendid suggestion of Spring, while in 

 the great Alpine solitudes, instead of this constant 

 changefulness, the soft mantle of protecting snow 

 rests undisturbed for months until such time as 

 it passes away finally and the flowers spring into 

 active life. We have in mid-July in Switzerland 

 gathered the crocus flowers of Spring, since only 

 at last in those high altitudes had come the melting 

 of the snows that had enwrapped them through 

 their lengthy winter rest. 



Another charming plant to grow bears a most 

 unpoetic name, being popularly known as Grim 

 the Collier. The colour of the flowers, a rich 

 orange-red, is unusual and in itself suffices to 

 attract attention. It would appear to be an easy 

 plant to grow ; at all events with us it springs up 

 in profusion, its down-covered seeds floating freely 

 in the breeze and readily establishing themselves, 

 while it also throws out creeping stems from the 

 parent plant. It is alternatively known as the 



