ALPINE PLANTS FBOM SEED 99 



and to remember every spot where lime-lovers or their opposites had 

 heen growing. While saying this, I confess that I have some rockeries 

 where both soil and rock are adapted exclusively for lime plants ; others 

 from which lime is kept away, and where both soil and rock are granitic ; 

 but the great majority of plants thrive equally well on both. . . . 



' With regard to soil, then, we must take care that it does not retain 

 stagnant moisture and yet it must not dry up too readily. Plants must 

 be able to penetrate it easily with their roots, the lengths of some of 

 which must be seen to be believed. Good loam, with a little humus in 

 the form of leaf-mould or peat, and half or three-quarters of the bulk 

 composed of stone riddlings from the nearest stone quarry, and varying 

 in size from that of rape seed to that of horse beans, make up a soil 

 with which most alpine plants are quite contented. . . . 



' Where you are convinced that lime is useful, it may be added as 

 pure lime, not planting in it till thoroughly slaked by mixture with the 

 soil. Eough surface dressing is a thing in which all alpine plants 

 delight, as it keeps the top of the soil sweet and moist and prevents 

 their leaves being fouled. Use for this purpose riddled stone, which is 

 better than gravel, as round pebbles are easily washed off the slope by 

 rain or in watering. 



' Raising Alpine Plants from Seed.- — A few words may be in place 

 here about raising alpine plants from seed ; for constant succession is 

 necessary, the duration of their life in cultivation being, for many ob- 

 vious reasons, far shorter than in their native home. Reproduction from 

 seed, where seed can be obtained, ensures the healthiest and finest 

 growth ; and there is no better way of getting seed than saving it your- 

 self. 



' In several cases the first hint I have had that a plant has ripened 

 fertile seed has been the recognition of a seedling near the parent ; and 

 this experience has taught me always to look carefully for seed after 

 the flowering of rare specimens. 



' I need not say, therefore, that I disapprove of the practice of cutting 

 ■off flower-heads as soon as they wither ; in some cases the seed-head is 

 nearly as ornamental as the flower ; but I have before said that discre- 

 tion must be used even in this, as seedlings of some things are trouble- 

 some from their number. 



' When ripe seed is gathered I recommend its being sown at once. It 

 is then more likely to come up quickly ; and as all such plants as we 

 grow on rockeries are better sown in pans, there is seldom difficulty in 

 keeping small seedlings through the winter. The greatest enemy we 

 have in the process is the growth of Lichen, the worst being the 

 Marchantia or Liverwort, which completely chokes tender growth. 



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