v.— WOOLLY-LEAVED ALPINE^ 



There are among these some of the choicest 

 gems of alpine vegetable Ufe; incidentally, also, 

 not a few that are somewhat fastidious in lowland 

 gardens. Inhabiting high mountain chains, revelling 

 under the most brilliant sunlight, breathing the purest 

 air, and in winter dry, snug, and warm beneath a 

 providential covering of snow, it is little wonder that, 

 suddenly transposed to an altitude a few thousand 

 feet lower down and exposed to alien conditions, 

 damp, cold, fog, or frost, with all the ills that repeti- 

 tions pf such changes bring in their train, some of 

 them, languishing for a time, presently give up so 

 unequal a struggle. Happily, however, these latter 

 are in a minority, and particularly so if considered in 

 relation to that krger assemblage of alpines that 

 appear quite content with the conditions obtaining in 

 British gardens. They are in a minority, too, if con- 

 sidered in company with the large number of woolly- 

 leaved plants that are usually a success. Of those 

 that may be termed consistent failures or at least diffi- 

 cult or miffy under cultivation, such Androsaces as 

 A. imbricata, A. helvetica, A. Wulfeniana, and A. 

 pubescens, may be numbered. These are sun-lovers, 

 and are more likely to become a success if planted 

 (wedged) between sunny fissures of rock where the 

 roots can descend deeply into pulverised limestone, 

 sand, or grit. Overhead dryness in winter, too, 

 means much to these plants. For the first named, 

 finely broken granite should be substituted for lime- 

 stone. To these four ordinary soil and soil damp are 

 virtually fatal. A. villosa would be happier in a less 

 sunny position, with attention to mulching the tufts 



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