1G2 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Alpines. I would instance the moisture-loving bog and wood 

 plants of North America, such as the Trilliums and hardy 

 Cypripediums, or the small hardy Bamboos of North Japan. To 

 such the term Alpine can in no proper sense be applied ; but, 

 for the reason given, we need not be at much pains to prevent its 

 extension to them. 



How far is artificial protection essential or desirable in the 

 culture of Alpine plants? and what is the best mode of pro- 

 tection ? are questions which have been much agitated. One 

 can give, of course, only the result of one's own observation and 

 experience ; and, personally, I should answer, that protection is 

 essential for few, but desirable for many. Great numbers of 

 species can be grown without it, even in the border, and still 

 more in a cunningly constructed rockery or rock garden. And 

 if one were confined to the alternative of growing Alpines either 

 only in the open or only by help of glass protection in the winter, 

 I for one should certainly choose the former alternative. But 

 the Alpine house, or Alpine shelter of any kind, is not an alter- 

 native to open-air culture. It is, and should be, its supplement 

 and complement. 



It has often been pointed out, and I believe with complete 

 truth, that the value of protection is, to say the very least, much 

 more as a shelter from wet, and from the drying winds of spring, 

 than from frost. Of frost merely, Alpine plants will naturally 

 stand very much, and where it injures it is probably oftener by 

 lilting the plants out of the ground and leaving the roots wrecked 

 and naked on the surface than by what I may call the legitimate 

 action of extreme cold. It is the soaking rains of wet autumns 

 and winters, and the cutting, drying winds of spring, all foreign 

 to the natural experience of the plants in their habitats, which 

 raise so alarmingly the death-rate of many of the choicer plants 

 in our gardens, and which a few species rarely survive. 



But how is protection best given ? Glass in some form is the 

 usual, and probably the best, material for the purpose, and I pro- 

 pose to touch on the methods of using it with special reference 

 to Alpines. 



Some use the hand-light in many or in any of its forms, the 

 all-important matter of ventilation being dealt with in several 

 familiar ways. And this method is effectual enough from most 

 points of view ; only it must be borne in mind in using it that 



