ALPINE FLOWERS 



[PART I. 



Bed of small Alpine Plants in pots plunged in sand. 



evaporation, preserve conditions congenial to alpine plants, and 

 keep the roots firm in the ground; the small plants looking 

 more at home springing from tiny rocks. It should, however, 

 be understood that such attention is required only for the 

 rarer of the higher alpine plants. 



No matter in what way these plants may be grown in 



gardens, it is often well 

 to keep the duplicates 

 and young stock in 

 small pots plunged in 

 sand or fine coal-ashes, 

 so that they may be 

 easily removed at any 

 time. The best way 

 of doing this is shown 

 in the wood-cut, which 

 represents a four-foot 

 bed in which young 

 alpine plants are plunged in sand, the bed being edged with half- 

 buried bricks. In bottoms of beds of this kind there should be 

 half a dozen inches of coal-ashes, so as to prevent worms getting 

 into the pots. Sand, or grit, or fine gravel, from its cleanliness and 

 the ease with which the plants may be plunged in it, is to be pre- 

 ferred, but finely sifted coal-ashes will do if sand be not at hand. 

 Such beds should always be in an open situation, near to a 

 good supply of water, and, if several are made, should be 

 separated by gravelled alleys of about 2 feet wide. The 

 watering is important, and in a large collection it should be 

 laid on. This certainly is the most convenient and economical 

 way. Over some of the beds in Mr Backhouse's Nursery at 

 York, may be seen an ingenious way of giving a constant supply 

 of water to Primulas, Gentians, and 

 other plants. Two perforated half -inch 

 copper pipes are laid just above the 

 plants in the beds, as shown in the cut. 

 Bed kept saturated by perforated j^^ the perforations in every 2 



feet or so of the pipe, drops continually trickle down in summer, 



