32 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part I. 



level of their roots, and fill it with concrete to the surface ; this 

 will prevent the alpine plants from being starved by their more 

 vigorous neighbours. The kind of stone is not an important 

 point, and many people have to take their chance in this 

 respect and use that which can be got. Millstone grit and most 

 kinds of sandstone are good, where a selection can be made, 

 but almost any kind will do. Vitrified material should be 

 avoided. 



With the soil should be incorporated the smallest and least 

 useful stones and ddbris among those collected for the work, so 

 that the plants to be seated on the top may send down their 

 roots through the mixture of earth and stone, and revel in it. 

 When this is well and firmly done, the larger stones may be 

 placed — ^half in the earth as a rule, and on their broadest side, 

 so that the mass, when completed, may be perfectly firm. Have 

 nothing to do with tree roots or stumps in work of this kind ; 

 •they crumble away, and are at best a nuisance and a disfigure- 

 ment to a gardeij. The intervening spaces may then be filled 

 up, half with the compost and half with the stony matter, and 

 the smaller blocks placed in position — the whole being made as 

 tastefully diversified as may seem desirable, taking the size of the 

 structure into consideration. When finished, it should look like a 

 bit of rocky ground, stones of different shapes protruding — here 

 a straight-sided one, under the lee of which a shade-loving plant 

 may flourish ; there two in juxtaposition, between which a cliff 

 alpine may find a place. Two or three feet high will as a rule 

 be high enough for the highest points of rocky fringes of this 

 sort, though the plan admits of considerable variation, and it 

 may be tastefully made twice or thrice as high. Iri some of our 

 public and private gardens want of means is given as ah excuse 

 for the presenceof the hideous pock-marked-potato-pit-like masses 

 of rockwork that disfigure them. The plan now recommended 

 is as much less expensive than these as it is less offensive ! 



We will next discuss a most interesting way of growing alpines. 

 Most of us have had opportunities of seeing how the most unin- 

 viting surfaces often yield a resting-place and nutriment to 

 various forms of plant-life. The closest pavements, the stone 

 roofs of old buildings, the stems and branches of trees, the faces 

 of inaccessible rocks, and ruins, are all frequently embellished in 

 the most charming way with ferns and wild flowers. 



