INTRODUCTION. 



This book is written to dispel a very general error, that 

 the exquisite flowers of alpine countries cannot be grown in 

 gardens, and as one of a series of manuals having for their 

 object the improvement of our out-door gardening — which, 

 it appears to me, is of infinitely greater importance than 

 anything that can ever be accomplished . in enclosed struc- 

 tures, even if glass sheds or glass palaces were within the 

 reach of all. There are few who have not heard of the 

 beauty and vividness of colour of alpine flowers ; but such 

 knowledge is usually accompanied by the notion that these 

 can only be seen upon the high Alps, and that it is impos- 

 sible to cultivate them in lowland regions. This erroneous 

 idea is not confined to the general public, it has been pro- 

 pagated by our most famous botanists and horticulturists 

 past and present, whenever they have had to figure or 

 allude to an alpine flower j while almost every alpine 

 traveller, botanical or otherwise, has lugubriously regretted 

 that we could not enjoy in our gardens these the most 

 charming of all flowers. 



The Duke of Argyll, in presiding at the last dinner of the 

 Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Institution, told the assemblage 

 an anecdote about Her Majesty's interest in some alpine 

 flowers picked up in a highland excursion in which he had 

 accompanied her, and he improved the occasion to eloquently 

 tell the crowd of assembled horticulturists that, though they 

 could do and had done almost everything in the way of 



