THE CULTIVATION OF ALPINE PLANTS. 



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and shelter afforded by the stones and form of the structure itself 

 is the best kind of shade and shelter. 



We now come to the subject of soil, which is very important, 

 though I attach less importance to it than others do who have 

 written on the subject. I hold that where atmospheric and 

 mechanical conditions are favourable, the chemical combination 

 of the soil is of secondary consideration. It is true that in 

 nature we find that the flora of a limestone mountain differs in 

 many particulars from that of a granite mountain, and on the 

 same mountain some plants will thrive in heavy retentive soil, 

 whilst others will be found exclusively in peat or sand. But for 

 one who is beginning to cultivate alpines to have to divide them 

 into lime-lovers and lime-haters, lovers of sand and lovers of 

 stiff soil, is an unnecessary aggravation of difficulties. So large 

 a proportion of ornamental plants are contented with the soil 

 which most cultivators provide for all alike — even though in 

 nature they seem to have predilections — that where an amateur 

 has only one rockery it would be too perplexing to study the 

 partiality of every plant, and to remember every spot where 

 lime-lovers or their opposites had been 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. I 

 know few better collections of alpine plants than one which I 

 recently saw at Guildford, growing on a bank of almost pure 

 chalk. I cannot say that I noticed any inveterate lime-haters 

 there ; but conditions of drainage and atmosphere were the chief 

 cause of success. 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 alpines are quite contented. The red 

 alluvial clay of Cheshire, burnt hard in a kiln, and broken up or 

 riddled to the above size, is an excellent material mixed with a 

 little soil and a little hard stone. Where you are convinced that 



