170 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



P. floribunda, will furnish colour in abundance, some of them, 

 however, needing at times to be first brought forward in a house 

 from which frost is excluded. 



The large and important genus Primula must be named as 

 needing for some of its species, and appreciating for many more, 

 like its congener Androsace, such a winter shelter as I am com- 

 mending. Good collections of this charming genus of Alpines 

 are now rarely seen. They would be common if such shelters 

 were frequent. The culture would not be so often abandoned as 

 it is, if it were undertaken with the assurance thus secured for 

 success. 



Cyananthus lobatus, Omplialodcs Lucilice, Cypripedia, Haber- 

 lea rhodopensis, Eritrichium nanum, Ramondias, and Ranun- 

 culus glacialis are but a few samples of the scores of other choice 

 things which occur to me, whose culture may be made more easy 

 and certain, or otherwise more completely successful, by the 

 protection in question. The list is too long to rehearse. 



In conclusion I ought to point out, what indeed is otherwise 

 evident, that such small and simple houses as I have to-day 

 described, sufficient though they may be, are but the rudiments 

 so to speak, of the Alpine house of the future. For if it may not 

 readily be made lofty, it may otherwise be as large as can be 

 desired ; and in proportion to its size, other things being equal, 

 would be its beauty and effect. For instance, it would be well 

 to make the house of double width at least, and to have a centre 

 staging, or rockery, rising nearly up to the roof. Again, let the 

 whole of the house, save its movable roof, be so constructed as 

 to form a part of a larger outside rock garden, its walls — if walla 

 it must have — being made of rough stone or of rockwork, and 

 any artificial appearance which may otherwise remain being 

 hidden by surrounding rockeries designed for the purpose. By 

 such means I think a structure may be devised, in many cases 

 without difficulty, affording the maximum of utility and the 

 minimum of "artificiality." 



The floors of my little houses, beneath the front rows of the 

 staging, I furnish with hardy or half-hardy Ferns, which may be 

 either in pots or planted in the soil of the floor ; and such plants 

 as Spergula pilifera, S. aurea, Linncca borealis, Lobelia ilici/olia, 

 and many others may well be added. 



I cannot but think (although at this point I pass from matters 



