188 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Thesiiim, Rhinanthus, Botrychium,anda number of interesting saprophytes 

 and root parasites. 



Another knoll has a patch of moorland, with Carex, Rhynchospora, 

 Cladium, Schoenus, Orchids and Grasses, and such forms as Triglochin 

 2)alustris, Alliiun sicaveolens, Iris sihirica, Potcntilla palustris, Primula 

 farinosa and P. Auricula, Gentians, Pinguiculas, &c. In the background 

 is a patch of Beech-wood, with its characteristic undergrowth of Actfea, 

 Aconitum, Prenanthes, Corydalis, Pyrola, Convallaria, Paris, Majanthe- 

 mum, &c., &c. 



Judging from the size of the " bed " referred to, it is clear that the 

 selection of plants from the much longer lists than those here quoted will 

 also be much limited by space, and once more we wonder how far the project 

 can be carried out in practice. Something will no doubt be gained by the 

 distribution in time as regards growing season and flowering period, but 

 the scale of the chart— given as ^^.j — suggests very serious crowding. Of 

 course, such plants are crowded in their natural habitats, but we are here 

 thinking of the difificulties of cultural operations entailed by weeding, 

 planting, &c., as well as of the limitation of effect if species like 

 many of those mentioned are not massed in large patches. Jumping 

 from one floral patch to another may also be very detrimental to the 

 effect from a gardening point of view. 



It will be interesting to learn what will be the effect of and how far 

 the following groups of plants can be represented and kept up. It forms 

 the community of the snow valleys and drifts and glacier margins, and 

 includes Salix serpyllifolia, interspersed with GnapJialium supinum or 

 Cr. Hoppcanum, and Soldanella alpina and S. pmsilla, Poa minor, Carex 

 atrata, Sagiiia Linnm, Alsinc Gcrardi, liaimnculus alpestris. Anemone 

 narcAssiflora, Thlaspi alpinum, Hutchinsia alpina, Arabis alpina and 

 A. pumila, Carclaminc alpina, Saxifraga stellaris and >S'. androsacea. In 

 this mass, predominantly white, come Viola hiflora, Epilohium ana- 

 gallidifolium and E. alsinifolium, Meum Mutellina, Gentiana nivalis 

 and G. bavarica, Veronica apliylla and V. alpina, Pedicularis verticillata, 

 Pinguicula alba, Erigeron uniflorus, Achillea atrata. Chrysanthemum 

 alpinum, Aronicum Clusii, Crcpis aurea, Leontodon Taraxacum and 

 L. pyrenaicus, all of which are chalk-loving plants. The formation also 

 includes the following chalk-fleeing types: Salix licrbacea, Alchemilla 

 pentaphylla, Sibbaldia procumbens and Arenaria biflora. 



This brings us to the glacier clay flora, in which Polytrichum septen- 

 trionale plays a leading role, but which it is not proposed to have repre- 

 sented in the garden. 



Of course many of the above plants can be cultivated ; but the point 

 here is, how far can they be kept together in their characteristic associa- 

 tions, and yet flourish in a climate so different from their native Alps ? 

 Clearly they cannot be left to merely flght it out, and strike the balance, 

 as they do in their natural struggle for existence, and one is appalled to 

 think of the work entailed in keeping the encroaching Grasses, Epilobium, 

 &c., in order, raid nursing the sensitive Saxifrages, Gentians, &c. 



What will be the effect from a gardener's point of view, and how far 

 it will be worth attaining irom the botanist's point of view, are other 

 questions ; personally, we have been disappointed iii viewing previous 



