A GARDEN DIARY 33 
speaking, threepence is the price of a fair-sized 
packet of the commoner perennials, and sixpence 
for one of the scarcer kinds. This initial differ- 
ence is, however, an infinitesimal part of the real 
one. It is the magnificent possibilities, the vast 
fecundity of those sixpences, as compared with 
the others, which is the real point. Not one 
plant, but dozens of plants, often hundreds of 
plants, may be the result of a single successful 
sowing, nor is the time lost by such sowings 
nearly as great as people seem to imagine. 
But the number of plants to be had in the 
course of a year by this means is only part of 
the advantage to be gained by it. The great 
advantage is that by so doing one’s plants 
become acquainted betimes with the qualities 
of the soil in which they find themselves, and, 
so getting acquainted, they reconcile themselves 
to it, as we most of us do reconcile ourselves 
to any environment, however little naturally to 
our taste, which has compassed us round from 
babyhood. To come to details. Alpine plants, 
though small to look at, are for the most part 
tolerably dear to buy. If a man, “whatever 
his sex!” loves his alpines, is determined to 
have them, has a fairly big alpine garden or 
border to fill, but will not be at the trouble of 
rearing them from seed, then I shall be rather 
sorry for that man’s pocket. A few of them 
—notably the Androsaces—are not amiable in 
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