i8 ALPINE FLOWERS AND ROCK GARDENS. 



all of kindness, all of chivalry that is in our nature 

 goes out in response to the mute request for sympathy 

 and protection. Thus the plants do more than give 

 the cultivator pleasure by their beauty. They enrich 

 his nature. 



There is at least one other important reason why 

 Alpine plants secure and hold an ever-widening circle 

 of supporters, and it is found in the fact that even in 

 the smallest places rock gardening, when intelHgently 

 conducted, gives a pleasing sense of intimacy with 

 nature. Within the area of a few square rods of ground 

 we may have a Uttle inner world of our own — a world 

 of hill and vale, of rock and water. Within its confines 

 we can cultivate a hundred kinds of beautiful plants 

 where another person might have nothing more in- 

 spiring than a belt of common shrubs. No hands 

 but our own need touch the rock garden when the 

 heavy work of getting in soil and stones has once 

 been done. Even if we are weakly we can fully 

 ministrate to the requirements of the plants — dividing 

 or otherwise propagating them when required, curbing 

 aggressive interlopers, supplying protection in the 

 rainy season, removing decaying flowers except when 

 seed is wanted, and performing such other cultural 

 acts as are called for, and which it is a constant 

 pleasure to provide. 



With the growth of our love for rock gardening we 

 make a closer study of Alpine plants than we have 

 done hitherto. We have a desire to know everything 

 about them : their place in the economy of nature, their 

 native habitats, the difference between the various 



