MANAGEMENT O^ ALPINE PLANTS. 187 



Alps, its beauties : the fine sunny days coming 

 at intervals, a soft air, after the drying March 

 winds, the cheerfulness of the birds, and the 

 struggling plants venturing forth, (often too 

 boldly,) are perhaps as pleasing, from the vari- 

 ety and the uncertainty, as the sudden and 

 certain change I have attempted to describe. 



You will see by what I have said, that, if you 

 grow Alpine plants, you must imitate, as far as 

 possible, an Alpine climate ; and, as you have 

 no certainty of allowing six months of snowy 

 jackets for the natives of snowclad hills, you 

 must discover a substitute for it : this will best 

 be found in a frame, in which the most tender 

 of these plants may be preserved during the 

 winter. Care must be taken that the pots be 

 well drained ; and a mat should be thrown over 

 the frames during very frosty weather. 



The more hardy Alpine plants, which are left 



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