ALPINE FLOWERS. 331 



If I walk the streets of London, there are very few days on which 

 I do not see some enticing Httle plant in the shops to add to my 

 collection. If I pay a visit to my friends, it is rare that there is not 

 something which they kindly spare. Nevertheless, heat or cold, wet 

 or drought, insects or moles, are constantly destroying some of the 

 plants which I already possess, and if left alone the strong would 

 overpower the weak, the tall would overshadow the dwarf, and the 

 more showy would be protected at the expense of the modest and 

 unobtrusive : thus alpineries continually require watching, regulating, 

 and replenishing. An alpinery is a source of great enjoyment, and 

 may be cultivated upon the smallest or upon the largest scale. An 

 alpinery a foot square would hold several interesting and beautiful 

 plants, and an alpinery an acre in extent would scarcely suffice to 

 satisfy the demands of the earnest horticulturist, so between the two 

 the amateur must take his choice. Nothing in horticulture has ever 

 given me so much satisfaction for so little trouble as my alpinery, 

 which produces 



" Flowers of all heavens, and lovelier than their names." 



Tennyson. 



ORNAMENTAL GRASSES. 



Some of the grasses are so lovely that the]? cannot be altogether 

 omitted from the flower-border. The Briza media 

 grows wild in my field as a perennial grass. The 

 B. maxima (fig. 749), an annual grass, is valuable 

 for nosegays. The Pampas Grass is exceedingly 

 noble. It forms large tufts from two to three feet 

 across, and in the autumn sends up flower-spikes 

 six to eight feet high. A fine plant in good 

 condition will send up a large number of spikes 

 from five to eight feet high, but it has the great 

 disadvantage of not withstanding severe frost (see fig. 749.— Briza maxima. 

 plate 20). Some of my plants which have attained the highest per- 

 fection have been so much injured by frost as to become unsightly, 



