164 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



plants. It combines, I think, all or most of the advantages of 

 other methods, and to them it adds the following : — 



First, a far drier winter condition, the plants being 

 raised upon stages, and air being freely admitted from below. 



Secondly, that the plants can be visited and tended with- 

 out the labour and inconvenience of constantly lifting the 

 lights for the purpose ; that it protects not the plants only, 

 but those who would cultivate and enjoy them. This is of 

 great consequence in the rough days of autumn, winter, or 

 spring. Indeed, as mere matter of economy of labour, and 

 therefore of money, I have, for the reason indicated, found it 

 worth while to transform into cheap low-pitched houses moet 

 of the stock of lights which I formerly used upon frames 

 for the purpose in hand. 



Thirdly, a distinct advantage of the Alpine house is that 

 it can be made perpetually beautiful throughout the year, 

 not excepting even December and January, with hardy 

 plants brought to the level of the eye. 



For this last purpose it is desirable — almost essential — that a 

 part of the furniture of the house should consist of the many 

 Alpines of perpetually beautiful foliage. The Saxifrages in 

 infinite variety are a host in themselves for this purpose. But 

 they do not by any means stand alone. There are besides, dwarf 

 evergreen shrubs which combine a short season of beauty of 

 flower and a continual season of beauty of habit and foliage. 

 Plants of such more or less perennial beauty will generally 

 constitute what may be called the permanent furniture of the 

 house, as distinct from the large class which are only beautiful 

 for a season. These latter may at other times be well kept 

 plunged in large open-air " cradles " of cocoanut fibre or ashes, 

 or, if hardy enough, even in a select open-air border close to the 

 house, and those needing protection may be relegated to frames. 

 For although an Alpine house may not unsatisfactorily be fur- 

 nished permanently with one set of inhabitants, the plan which 

 I have just indicated is perhaps on the whole the better. Let the 

 house contain only the plants which for the time being are in 

 beauty, whether of foliage or of flower, and let it be " served " 

 from a frame outside (somewhat as a conservatory is supplied 

 from a hot-house) with that half of its occupants which have but 



