APRIL 91 



has possessed so many amateurs of late has led to 

 many deplorable mistakes. There is, indeed, no more 

 fascinating class of herbs than those which grow at 

 high altitudes, and the very difficulty of reconciling 

 them to an atmosphere more dense and enervating 

 than their native air stimulates one's ambition to 

 succeed with them. For great is the reward of success. 

 A well-ordered, well-tended collection of these brilliant 

 little mountaineers is a joy to its owner at all times of 

 the year ; for the foliage of many of them, such as the 

 encrusted and mossy saxifrages, the whitlow grasses, 

 house-leeks, and some species of dianthus, render them 

 nearly as decorative in winter as their blossoms do in 

 spring and summer. Most of the true alpines are of 

 dwarf stature, crouching in crannies or spreading 

 close cushions over the rocks. Moisture they must 

 have during the season growth; but they are so 

 impatient of stagnant wet that they refuse, at least 

 some of them do, to survive a British winter in an 

 ordinary flat border. Hence the need for growing them 

 in soil raised above the level ground and supported by 

 stones, to ensure rapid drainage; yet so entirely do 

 some gardeners misinterpret the simple requirements 

 of alpines that it has become a common thing to see 

 monstrous piles erected for their accommodation, 

 grievously out of keeping with the usual trim char- 

 acter of the grounds of a country house or suburban 

 villa. 



It may be said that the alpine flowers must nearly 

 always be out of keeping with typical English park 

 scenery. That is true; but therein is all the more reason 



