Part I. ALPINE PLANTS IN POTS. 59 



precautions against worms, slugs, and weeds. And such will 

 be found to be the case with many other rare and fine alpine 

 plants. The best position in which to grow the plants would 

 be some open spot near the working sheds, where they could be 

 plunged in coal ashes, and be under the eye at all times. And 

 as they should show the public what the beauty of hardy plants 

 really is, so should they be grown entirely in the open air in 

 spring and summer. To save the pots and pans from cracking 

 with frost, it would in many cases be desirable to plunge them 

 in shallow cold frames, or- cradles, with a northern exposure in 

 winter ; but in the case of the kinds that die down in winter, 

 a few inches of some light covering thrown over the pots, when 

 the tops of the plants have perished, would form a sufficient 

 protection. 



Alpine and herbaceous plants in pots, and kept in the open air 

 all the winter, are best plunged in a porous material on a porous 

 bottom, and on the north side of a hedge or wall, where they 

 would be less liable to change of temperature, or to be excited 

 into growth at that season. 



For growing the Androsaces and some rare Saxifrages a 

 modification of the common pot may be employed with a good 

 result. It is effected by cutting a piece out of the side of 

 the pot, one and a half or two inches deep. The head of the 

 plant potted in this way is placed outside of the pot, leaning 

 over the edge of the oblong opening, its 

 roots within in the ordinary way, among 

 sand, grit, stones, &c. (Fig. 41). Thus 

 water cannot lie about the necks of the 

 plants to their destruction. Undoubtedly 

 it is anadvantagefordelicatetufted plants ^«- '^aT^™/,' "^"'''"^ 

 liable to perish from this cause. I first 

 observed this method in M. Boissier's 

 ■ garden, near Lausanne, in 1 868. The pots 

 used there were taller proportionately 

 than those we commonly use, so that there ^^^ 



was plenty of room for the roots after the ^.^ ^, _Aipine plant grow- 

 rather deep cutting had been made. ing between stones in pot. 



A yet more desirable mode than the pre- 

 ceding is that of elevating the collar of the plant somewhat above 

 the level of the earth in the ordinary pot by means of half-buried 

 stones, as shown in the accompanying illustration (Fig. 42). 



