4 GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS 



height. They prefer a deeply-tilled soil composed of road grit and good 

 fibious loam, freely impregnated with limestone chippings in the case 

 of Pulsatilla and A. vernalts, and non-calcareous stone chips for the 

 remainder, aggregated around the collars of the plants, for their chief 

 fault is liability to decay at the base of the leaf-growths. The import- 

 ance of securing young established plants in pots to start the colony 

 cannot be over-estimated. One may waste much time and incur con- 

 siderable expense in attempting to grow newly-imported plants without 

 any appreciable success. They should be planted either when in full 

 growth or in March ; the season does not matter provided the plants 

 can be established before winter and the soil readily worked at the time 

 of planting. If good seeds are obtainable and this is a difficult matter 

 quantities of good plants can be raised with a little care. Use leaf- 

 soil and road-grit as a potting compost, sterilised by baking, or sow the 

 seeds in broad pans, plunging them in the open up to the rims, and leave 

 them out all the winter. Should snow fall heavily during the winter, 

 stack several feet of the cleanest obtainable over the pans, and beat it 

 down hard so that it will not melt quickly. Germination is more rapid 

 after such treatment, and the seedlings quickly appear. A thick tile 

 laid over the soil is also of use in helping germination. The first season's 

 growth is very short in duration, and in some cases seedlings may not 

 appear for a year after sowing. 



The chief members of the alpine Anemones are as follow : 



A. alpina. A native of European mountains; varies from a tiny 

 tufted plant to specimens 2 feet high. It bears handsome white flowers 

 on branched stems, slightly tinged with blue on the reverse of the petals, 

 and furnished with a cone of yellow anthers in the centre of each. The 

 leaves are soft, but not silky, and in shape resembling miniature Fools' 

 Parsley. It is a grand plant, apparently more easy to grow in an old 

 gravel path at the foot of a rockery than high up on a rockery slope. 

 It flowers in May. 



A. decapetala, a North American plant, grows 9 inches high, forming 

 a tuft of small leaves and taller stems bearing pale sulphur yellow flowers 

 under i inch across, and very freely produced. It flowers in May. 



A. dichotoma (syn. A. pennsylvanica) is a free-growing plant midway 

 between A. sylvestris and A. alpina. It makes a thicket of slender 

 growths i foot high, and bears quantities of white flowers arranged in a 

 loose corymb, the pedicels varying in length. It is an excellent border 

 plant, preferring a deep rich loam, in which it makes excellent growth. 

 It flowers in May. 



A. Halleri. One of the Pulsatilla section, and a very charming plant 

 that will thrive apace in a rather dry, gritty loam. The root-stock 

 assumes massive proportions with age, and yields a multitude of flowering 

 crowns that produce greyish-violet nodding flowers surrounded by silky 

 verticels. The plant has a looser habit than the native Pasque Flower 

 (A Pidsatilld), but is very close to many cultivated forms of it. May 

 flowering. 



A. Pulsatilla (The Pasque Flower). A native of our upland pastures 



