IN AN ALPINE GARDEN 137 



happy, laughing, vigour-full, enjoying life as only 

 true ascetics can. Whether we realize it or not, 

 here is a gathering of plants which have become 

 supremely lovely under the severest conditions- 

 plants which have renounced the 'pomps and 

 vanities/ the superabundance and grossness of the 

 world, and so have attained to a refinement and 

 brilliance of beauty which even tropical vegetation, 

 at the other end of the scale, must envy. Whether 

 we realize all this or not, the effect upon us is 

 much the same : in an Alpine garden we feel that 

 we should doff our hats and speak in whispers, for 

 we are conscious of being in the presence of 



4 A deeper radiance than mere light can give.' 



Speaking of Alpines, the author of ' Studies in 

 Gardening ' says that, ' of all plants they have the 

 most character '; and it is, indeed, possible that they 

 are the last and highest word upon character in the 

 Vegetable Kingdom. Alpines tend, as it were, to 

 complete the circle of vegetable circumstance. 

 Commencing with lichens on the rocks, vegetation 

 progresses, as soil accumulates and becomes richer 

 and deeper, order above order, along a scale of 

 increasing organism, until trees appear and the soil 

 has reached its highest degree of development. 



18 



