CULTIVATION OF ALPINE FLOWERS. 523 
flowers and extend their green shoots over the bare rock; 
and where rock-work is artistically managed, this faint at- 
tempt at a reconstruction of their native habitat adds greatly 
to the picturesqueness of the effect. But many of them will 
flourish equally well in open borders, and even when planted 
in pots, with a few stones about them to protect the roots 
from the direct action of the sun, if only the two requisites 
are attended to, of constant moisture and perfect drainage ; 
and hence they are invaluable acquisitions to the cottage or 
window gardener. The Saxifrages, the beautiful purple 
Aubrietia, with respect to which Mr. Robinson says, "rock- 
works, ruins, stony places, sloping banks, and rootwork suit it 
perfectly ; no plant is so easily established in such places, nor 
will any other alpine plant clothe them so quickly with the 
desired vegetation,” the various species of Arabis, the alpine 
Primulas, all make excellent bedding plants. The ease with 
. Which a new alpine can be domesticated in our climate is 
shown by the rapid spread of the lovely early forget-me-not, 
Myosotis dissitiflora, brought not many years since from the 
Alps near the Vogelberg, now to be had from every nursery- 
man, and the treasure of many a cottage garden, with its 
exquisite sky-blue flowers, continuing from mid-winter till 
early summer. i 
But it is not alpine flowers only which will repay the small 
amount of trouble neċessary for their introduction. Many 
plants which are never grown without the protection of a 
greenhouse, do not require any elevation of temperature for 
their successful growth, but merely an absence of great 
changes of both temperature and moisture. This is especially 
the case with not a few of the most delicate ferns, such as 
the elegant maidenhair, and the two fragile little filmy-ferns ; 
and the requisite uniformity of temperature and moisture 
can be obtained out of doors by the erection of a partially 
underground grotto or ravine of rocks, through which water 
is perpetually trickling, the 'entrance being protected by a 
screen of foliage from the direct influence of the weather. 
