42 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part I. 



purea, with leaves more of a dark blood-coloured than of a 

 purplish hue, was very effective on a glaucous or silvery turf, and 

 handsome greenhouse succulents came well into the background. 

 But the lesson the thing teaches is of far greater value than 

 the details of the planting, and every one who observes such ar- 

 rangements should bear in mind that all the little plants which 

 cover the ground in such a charming way are perfectly hardy, 

 and but a mere tithe of what may be used in the same way, and 

 with effects equally pretty and singular. 



Fig. 33 shows a ridged bed about two feet high, very 

 tastefully formed, by Mr. Harry Veitch, in the Royal Exotic 

 Nursery, Chelsea, last spring ; Fig. 34, a circular bed ex- 



Fig. 36. — Distant effect of small hills crested with Antennaria tonientosa. 



quisitely' arranged, by Mr. Alfred Salter, in the Versailles 

 Nursery, at Hammersmith ; Fig. 35, an almost pyramidal 

 and strikingly pretty bed, formed by Mr. Eyles, in the Royal 

 Horticultural Gardens, South Kensington, during the past sum- 

 mer ; and Fig. 36 attempts to show the distant effect of 

 silvery carpets of Antennaria tomeniosa, suggesting the appear- 

 ance of snow on mounds, in Battersea Park, in 1869. 



The old-fashioned mixed border offers a capital means of 

 growing, without trouble, numbers of first-class alpine plants. 



This much abused, much misunderstood, sometimes over- 

 praised, method of arranging plants is now rarely or never 

 seen with us in what are called " good gardens." When seen, 

 it is usually a poor sight, and worthy of the ridicule be- 

 stowed by some horticulturists on what they have never seen in 

 perfection, and know little about. They misunderstand this old 

 system, and abuse it. However, its ancient admirers were not 



