The Moraine Explained 25 



many high alpines regard certain soils. It would be 

 true of the most of them to say that they are but the 

 creatures of circumstance. To arrive at this one 

 argues from the standpoint that not a few of the 

 plants found in natural Moraines were, perchance, long 

 ago higher up ; that they have been carried thither by 

 the moving, snow and ice, and, having become located 

 in the Moraine, have endeavoured to adapt themselves 

 to their surroundings. Their introduction may have 

 been by means of seeds, or plants, or both, though, 

 doubtless, no matter upon what rock formation the 

 plants formerly existed, that rock would be saturated 

 with moisture. Hence, the moisture, in conjunction 

 with the poorest of soils — sand, grit, rock — ^as opposed 

 to the richer vegetable soils, may be said to be among 

 their greatest needs. 



Its Relation to the Rock Garden. — What is a 

 Moraine ? The dictionary rendering is '' an accumula- 

 tion of stones and other debris found at the foot, along 

 the edges, or down the centres of glaciers," hence, of 

 necessity, well suppli^ with moisture, and, above all, 

 always cool, at least, below. The glacier, the ice and 

 snow, we cannot imitate ; the cool conditions below we 

 can in our own way. In Nature, too, the majority are 

 in full stm; that condition we might also imitate, 

 though, naturally, partially or very feebly. We can, 

 however, give our Moraine the fullest possible expo- 

 sure, and with moisture and crushed rock and grit at 

 our disposal do much for the plants reputedly at home 

 in such places. These latter, indeed, constitute the 

 essentials ; their opposites — rich soil and dryness — the 

 fatal doses of poisons as it were to the ^ root-fibres of 

 those high alpines to which it must be so absolutely 

 and entirely foreign. 



Now, what is the relation of the Moraine to the rock 

 garden as we know it ? It is as the veriest babe in long 

 clothes, its most recent phase, an adjunct, a something 

 of which the best informed know a little and imagine 

 much, a something, however, which is most likely to 



