590 Cultivation of Plints. 
raking or forking, but deep digging is unnecessary, and often 
destructive. To improve or renovate the soil, a surface dressing 
of leaf-mould or rotten dung may be applied if desirable; but 
the better plan is, if the borders have been properly prepared, 
to leave them alone fora few years, and then partially or wholly 
renew them, and transplant the whole of the occupants. Liquid 
manure should always be sparingly used, and reduced to a weak 
consistency, and only when such subjects as Dahlias and Holly- 
hocks are introduced is it desirable to resort to it at all for a 
tolerably fertile soil. 
The successful cultivation of strictly alpine plants is a task 
of much greater difficulty, undertaken only by those who have 
the needful time and convenience. Many of them require the 
greatest skill and experience of their natural conditions; and 
some defy all attempts to keep them alive beyond a season or 
two. Artificial rockeries are erected with appliances to ensure 
good drainage and a cool moist atmosphere during the warmer 
months, And even then it is usual to grow the more sus- 
ceptible species in pots, and plunge them, so that they may be 
transferred to a cool pit during the inclement season, when 
they are liable to damp off from excessive moisture. Never- 
theless, there are many of the more vigorous alpine specics 
that will flourish well in any ordinary free soil. It is chiefly the 
diminutive species, and especially those clothed with hairs, that 
are the least amenable to the artificial conditions inseparable 
from culture, and these peculiarities are alluded to in the 
descriptive portion of this work. 
5. Culture of Bulbous and Tuberous-rooted Plants. 
Although many of the species belonging to this class will 
flourish under the same treatment recommended for herbaccous 
plants in general, a great majority of them need rather more 
attention, and will not give satisfactory results unless their 
special requirements are studied. Amongst the least exacting 
are the Snowdrop, Spring Crocuses, White and Orange Lilies, 
Day Lily, Winter Aconite, Snowflake, Ornithogalum umbel- 
latum, Muscari botryoides, Gladiolus communis, and the com- 
mon Narcissuses and Jonquils; but even these prefer a free, 
tolerably rich soil. 
The various modes of treatment adopted for plants with 
fleshy roots or rootstocks depend upon their hardiness, and 
the nature of their rootstocks. We will take the principal 
