lo Fundamental Precautions 



be stated, despite its ornamental and not a little also its 

 utilitarian value, is not essential to the cultivation of 

 many alpines, while soil, freely mingled with grit or 

 gravel, is absolutely so. Hence, at the outset an assured 

 depth of soil, one free from such insidious weed pests 

 as coltsfoot, bindweed or couch, should exist. Where 

 the coming rock has to be built or arranged against a 

 steep slope or bank, uncultivated through many years, 

 it is of the highest importance that the weed pests 

 named should, if -existing, be eradicated at the start. 

 In this the greatest personal care should be exercised, 

 since once covered in, they will ramify in all directions, 

 and, finding a congenial home beneath the rocks, be- 

 come an intolerable nuisance for all time. Apart from 

 this, not a few of them presently find a lodgment in the 

 clumps of the more tufted alpines, which they quickly 

 disfigure or perhaps destroy if they are not checked in 

 time. 



In general terms it should be stated that the greatest 

 number of alpine plants prefer a light, loamy and rather 

 gritty soil. Hence, should soil of an opposite nature 

 exist as the staple, it will be necessary to remove and 

 discard some of it during the early excavations. Clay 

 soils, and those in particular of a tenacious, water-hold- 

 ing nature, will require special treatment and drastic 

 measures — such as the discarding of them to a con- 

 siderable depth and even effectually draining the sub- 

 soil might be rendered necessary. Thus it will be seen 

 that the selection of a bank or slope where greasy, 

 tenacious clay abounds is not desirable, and apart from 

 the question of soil, an excessive rainfall might even 

 endanger the stability of the structure as a whole. In 

 those instances where sand, gravel or chalk to a con- 

 siderable depth constitute the subsoil, the rock builder 

 will have but little to fear in the matter of soils, since in 

 all such it will be but a question of modification or re- 

 adjustment according to circumstances. Moreover, in 

 all of these the drainage of the whole — an item of 

 supreme importance in some soils — ^is already perfected 



