CHAPTER III. 



Alpine Plants in British Gardens. 



The knowledge that true Alpine plants grow under 

 climatic conditions very different from those which 

 prevail in Great Britain — that they live at altitudes 

 where the light is very intense, the air dry, the summer 

 short, and the winters attended by perpetual snow — 

 may cause misgivings to those who have not had 

 opportunities of seeing the success which attends 

 intelligent rock gardening in Great Britain, with its 

 diffused light, damp air and often wet, almost snowless 

 winters. 



Certainly the conditions are very different, and in 

 one sense it is surprising that so few plants should give 

 cause for anxiety in British gardens. But we must 

 remember that the plants have an inherent capacity 

 for adapting themselves to circumstances — a capacity 

 which each individual member of a species possesses, 

 and which has been latent in its kind for many 

 thousands of years. The knowledge of this gives us 

 confidence in such efforts as are required to give the 

 plants the nearest approach possible to the conditions 

 which prevail in nature. 



The great majority of Alpine plants do well in 

 England, and the flower-lover who sets out to practise 



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