THE CULTIVATION OF ALPINE PLANTS. 



293 



careful judgment, and I often prefer to water the soil holding 

 the can close to the ground at the highest point of the stones, 

 and letting the water run down the slope to get to the roots, 

 rather than wet the plants themselves. Wet foliage and flowers 

 often get burnt up by sunshine. 



Weeding, carefully done, is a necessity on rockeries, for weeds 

 will come ; but plants which seed about freely are to be avoided, 

 as they greatly multiply , the labour of weeding, and some of 

 them are hard to eradicate from among the stones. The Hare- 

 bells and Alpine Poppies, pretty as they are, must be excluded 

 on this account ; so must that weedy little plant Saxifraga 

 Cymbalaria, which can be grown on any wall. The fewer weeds 

 there are, the more likely are seedlings of choice and rare plants 

 to assert themselves. For instance, Geranium argenteum grows 

 in crevices into which the seeds are shot when ripe, and where 

 plants could not be inserted, and keeps up the supply of this 

 elegant alpine. 



A few words may be in place here about raising alpines from 

 seed ; for constant succession is necessary, the duration of their life 

 in cultivation being, for many obvious reasons, which need not 

 be discussed here, far shorter than in their native home. Re- 

 production 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 yourself. 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 flower- 

 ing of rare specimens. I need not say, therefore, that I dis- 

 approve of the practice of cutting off flower-heads as soon as 

 they wither ; in some cases the seed-head is nearly as orna- 

 mental as the flower ; but I have before said that discretion 

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

 troublesome 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 fungus, which completely chokes tender- 

 growth. A coating of finely sifted burnt earth on the surface, 



