PART II.] 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



303 



Very dwarf and rather slow-growing 

 kinds, like S. ccesia and S. aretioides, 

 should be surrounded by half-buried 

 pieces of stone, to prevent their being 

 trampled on or overrun. Stone will 

 also help to preserve the ground in a 

 moist healthy condition in the dry 

 season, when the plants are most 

 likely to suffer. Very dry winds in 

 spring sometimes have a bad effect 

 when such precautions are not taken. 

 The broad-leaved Indian Rockfoils 

 (Megasea) are among the most easily 

 grown, increased, and enduring of 

 hardy plants. Where we seek for 

 evergreen effects in winter, there is 

 nothing to equal them, and their 

 flowers have much beauty in spring. 



In this large family, as in others, 

 a first consideration should be whether 

 we look at the plants from the artistic 

 or the collector's point of view. If 

 we wish to get good effects, I say the 

 artistic way is the right one. By 

 treating the rock-garden as a book or 

 herbarium, we cannot get the broad and 

 simple effects that are necessary for a 

 good result. We want the charm of the 

 most distinct things, but for effect 

 a few kinds from each group will 

 give us a better result than a large 

 number. The dotting of a great 

 number of species is against good 

 effect, but here, as in all cases, in- 

 dividual taste should have its way, 

 and it may be interesting to ^ study 

 a section by fully representing it, and 

 to make most of the kinds we prefer. 



The Rockfoils are a numerous 

 family, with so many forms that it 

 would take a book to describe them, 

 as Mr Correvon of Geneva has described 

 them fully in various articles written 

 for the Garden in 1891. I once saw 

 nearly seventy kinds of the mossy 

 Saxifrages in the late Mr Borrer's 

 garden at Henfield, in Sussex ; but 



as regards effect, half a dozen of these 

 will give us all we require. 



The great Indian Rockfoils, syn. 

 Megasea, have been in pur gardens 

 for many years, but in not one 

 place out of twenty do we ever see 

 them made a right use of; they are 

 thrown into borders without thought 

 as to their habits, often as single 

 plants, and are soon overshadowed 

 by other things ; and in such ways 

 we never get any expression of 

 their beauty. Yet, if we took a 

 little trouble, and grouped them in 

 effective ways, they would go on for 

 years, giving fine evergreen foliage at 

 all times of the year, and, in the case 

 of some, showy flowers on tall stems. 

 Half the trouble that a gardener gives 

 every year to some evanescent plant 

 that will only show for a few weeks 

 in summer, if given to the placing 

 of these properly, would afford us a 

 good result for years. In addition to 

 the wild kinds, a number of fine 

 forms have been raised in gardens of 

 late years. Some thought should be 

 given to the placing of these things, 

 their mountain character telling us 

 that they ought to be in open banks, 

 borders, or bluffy places exposed to 

 the sun, and not buried among heaps 

 of tall herbaceous vegetation. They 

 are easily grown and propagated, and 

 a little thought in placing them in 

 sufficiently visible masses is the only 

 thing they call for; the fact that 

 they will endure and thrive under 

 almost any conditions should not 

 prevent us from showing how good 

 they are in effect when held together, 

 either as carpets, bold edgings, or 

 large picturesque groups on banks or 

 rocks. The following is a selection 

 of the best of the kinds in cultivation. 



Saxifraga aizoides (Yellow Mountain 

 Eockfoil}. A native plant, abundant in 



