CHAPTER X 



THE ROCK GARDEN 



Persons going to the Alps, and seeing plants 

 growing there in what look like uncongenial places, 

 and then bringing them home and planting them 

 in their good soil and sheltered gardens, are apt 

 to think that they have done all that is necessary 

 to have at home the bright colours and the vigour 

 of Alpine plants which they so much admired in 

 Switzerland. No doubt they have done all they 

 could, but the end is not far off. In new gardens 

 especially, plants sometimes put on a marvellous 

 luxuriance, and we are tempted to think that we 

 shall succeed, and even do better for our favourites 

 than in their native homes ; but it does not last 

 long. Little by little they dwindle away, smothered 

 by weeds or by seedlings from their neighbours, 

 and the end is that many of us have to confess 

 that Alpines from the higher Alps cannot be 

 grown except in a few favoured places or under 

 glass. And this is not only the case with the 

 plants of the high Alps ; it is equally the case 

 with many other Swiss plants. I cannot grow 

 the Arnica montana ; but has any one ever seen 

 it in England growing with anything approaching 

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