4 ALPINE FLOWERS [PART I. 



bejewelled with Gentians. We should not pay so much 

 attention to the stones or rocks as to the earth for the plants. 

 There are certainly alpine plants that do not require a deep soil, 

 or what is usually termed soil at all; but all require a firm 

 medium for the roots. 



In numbers of gardens an attempt at " rockwork " of some 

 sort has been made ; but in most cases the result is ridiculous ; 

 not because it is puny when compared with Nature's work in 

 this way, but because it is so arranged that rock-plants cannot 

 exist upon it. In many places a sort of sloping stone or burr 

 wall passes as " rockwork," a dust of soil being shaken in be- 

 tween the stones. In others, made upon a better plan as regards 

 the base, the " rocks " are all stuck up on their ends, and so close 

 that soil, or room for a plant to root or spread, is out of the 

 question. The best thing that usually happens to a structure 

 of this sort is that its nakedness gets covered by some friendly 

 climbing shrub, or some rampant weed, to the exclusion of 

 true rock-plants. 



In moist districts, where frequent rains keep porous stone 

 in a continually humid state, this too showy " rockwork " may 

 manage to support a few plants; but in by far the larger 

 portion of the British Isles it is useless, and always ugly. 

 In the southern and eastern counties, where of late years 

 the rainfall is often very low, the need is all the greater to see 

 that alpine plants are so placed that they will not suffer from 

 drought. It is not alone because the mountain air is pure and 

 clear and moist that the Gentians and like plants prefer it, 

 but because the elevation is unsuitable to the coarser-growing 

 vegetation ; and the alpines have it all to themselves. Take a 

 healthy patch of Silene acaulis, by which the summits of some 

 of our highest mountains are mossed with rosy crimson, 

 and plant it two thousand feet lower down in suitable soil, 

 keeping it moist enough and free from weeds, and we may grow 

 it well ; but leave it to Nature in the same neighbourhood, and 

 the strong grasses and herbage will soon run through and cover 

 it, excluding the light, and finally killing the diminutive Moss 

 Campion. 



