o ALPINE FLOWERS. Part I. 



may grow it to perfection ; but leave it to nature in the same 

 neighbourhood, and soon the strong grasses and herbage will 

 run through and cover it, excluding the light, and finally and 

 quickly killing the hardy and vigorous but diminutive Moss 

 Campion. 



Although hundreds orbrilliant alpine flowers may be grown 

 without a particle of rock near them, yet the slight elevation 

 given by rockwork is very congenial to numbers of the most 

 valuable kinds. The effect of a tastefully disposed rock-garden 

 is very desirable in garden scenery. It furnishes a home for 



Fig. 3. — ^Vertical face of rock covered with narrow-leaved Ivy, and with various 

 ' alpine plants in the chinks. (From a photograph.) 



many pretty native and other interesting plants, which may not 

 safely be put elsewhere ; and therefore it is most important that 

 the most essential principle to be borne in mind, when making it, 

 should be generally known. 



The chief mistake generally made is that of not providing a 

 feeding place for the roots of the plants that are to embellish 

 the rockwork. In a wild state alpines may be seen protruding 

 their stems, crowned by dense tufls of leaves and flowers, from 

 very narrow chinks— as narrow, in fact, as those left in the 

 singular structures which I denounce ; but if we try to take up 

 the wild alpine, it is found that its tap roots descend down by 

 the side of the moist stones and under them, and then perhaps 



