ALPINE PLANTS AND THEIR TREATMENT. 



121 



The plants then enter upon a period of comparative rest ; they have 

 set aside their brilliant attractions and seem inactive. They do not, 

 however, pursue a less incessant work very interesting to observe. 

 During this period of its life-history the exterior parts of the 

 plant have less need of moisture, because the seeds, in order to 

 ripen, require to be under the direct influence of the dry warmth 

 of the sun. Then when the sap is no longer required by the seed 

 (which when ripe falls, and is scattered around its mother plant), 

 it returns to the subterranean organs, where a different work is 

 carried on. Roots swell and are filled with nutritive juices, and 

 bulbs store up the food which is required for the following 

 spring — in a word, the plant provides for its future needs. 

 Winter is at hand. Before, however, entering upon this season 

 of rest, Alpine vegetation seems to make a last and supreme 

 effort of life and development. Then are formed the flower-buds 

 of the spring-blooming kinds, which must be already formed in 

 order that the first sun of spring may expand the flowers. 

 Plants of this sort often bring some of their buds into blossom in 

 the autumn, so that if you make an excursion in October, just 

 before the Alps begin to be covered with snow, you will find in 

 the sub -Alpine regions (1,000 to 1,500 metres) that Gentiana 

 verna, Potentilla verna, P. aurea, &c, are in flower, and often 

 abundantly. 



The rocks and the stony debris which is so plentiful in the 

 high regions must be considered as gigantic water reservoirs, and 

 their presence or absence plays a most important part in plant 

 life. The rocks hold the water and, like colossal sponges, store 

 it up in rainy weather and retain it till the dryness of the air 

 absorbs it. 



Moisture is then one of the three conditions essential to the 

 life of Alpine vegetation, and it is the reason why in England 

 Alpines generally do much better than in our dry climate of 

 Geneva. For years I have tried several plans for supplying this 

 want of moisture. Rockeries and stone walls are very good, as 

 the stones, as I have already said, are excellent for retaining 

 moisture. Eritrichium nanum, Androsace glacialis, and others 

 do very well when grown in a stone wall in the full sun if the 

 wall is often watered. But the best plan for all countries where 

 the sun is too powerful and the air too dry is cultivation in 

 Sphagnum. In the Gardeners' Chronicle I spoke of cultivation in 



