82 ALPINE FLOWERS [PART I. 



grit which are continually being carried down by natural 

 agencies. In our long summer, some of the Primulas will 

 make a tall growth and protrude rootlets on the stem a state 

 for which dividing and replanting them firmly, nearly as deep 

 down as the collar, is a remedy. 



There are many plants which demand to be permanently 

 established, and with which an entirely different course must 

 be pursued, Spigelia marilandica, Gentiana verna, G. bavarica, 

 and Cypripedium spectabile y for example. The Gentians are 

 rarely well grown, and yet I am convinced that few will fail 

 to grow them if they procure in the first instance good plants ; 

 pot them carefully and firmly in good sandy loam, well drained, 

 using bits of grit or gravel in the soil; plunge the pots in 

 sand or coal-ashes to the rim, in a position fully exposed to the 

 sun ; and give them abundance of water during the spring and 

 summer months, taking precautions against worms, slugs, and 

 weeds. And such will be found to be the case with many 

 other rare and fine alpine plants. The best position in which 

 to grow the plants would be in some open spot, where they 

 could be plunged in coal-ashes, and be under the cultivator's 

 eye. And, as they should show the public what the beauty of 

 hardy plants really is, so should they be grown entirely in the 

 open air in spring and summer. To save the pots and pans 

 from cracking with frost, it would in many cases be desirable 

 to plunge them in shallow cold frames, or cradles, with a 

 northern exposure in winter ; but, in the case of the kinds that 

 die down in winter, a few inches of some light covering thrown 

 over the pots, when the tops of the plants have perished, would 

 form a sufficient protection. 



ALPINE FLOWERS IN POTS. 



Alpine and herbaceous plants in pots, and kept in the open 

 air all the winter, are best plunged in a porous material on a 

 porous bottom, and on the north side of a hedge or wall, where 

 they would be less exposed to changes of temperature, and less 

 liable to be excited into growth at that season. 



The most suitable kind of pots for alpine flowers that I 



