ALPINE PLANTS. 
377 
ALPINE PLANTS. 
By Mr. Michael Cuthbertson, F.R.H.S., of Rothesay, N.B. 
All who are interested in the cultivation of hardy plants must have 
observed with pleasure that during the last decade a marked change has 
taken place in outdoor gardening. For very many years the formal 
system, copied from our French neighbours, had held undivided sway ; 
and on its introduction the old-fashioned hardy flowers, the beauties of 
which could not be seen through the jaundiced eyes of fashion, were 
ruthlessly consigned to the rubbish-heap, or stuck among shrubs and 
other out-of-the-way places, there to fall a prey to vermin, or dwindle 
away, neglected and forgotten, till they died of a broken heart. What 
sprung up in their place could hardly by any intelligent mind be 
called an improvement. Gardening became degraded to a mere matter 
of colour arrangement — lines and circles and pannels of b]ue, yellow, 
scarlet, white, and purple — the poor plants twisted and pegged, clipped 
and tortured, to bring out some pattern or design, wiiich on a Brussels 
carpet might look very well, but in a flower-garden an outrage upon 
Nature. Visitors on entering such a garden exclaimed, " Oh ! how beau- 
tiful ! " And where their interest began there too it ended. What is there 
in lines of Lobelia, Violas, Geraniums, Beetroot, Perilla, Calceolarias, to 
satisfy the mind ? The colours may please the eye for a moment, but to 
the heart the whole thing is a barmecide feast. 
Happily, however, a change has come. Herbaceous and rock-gardens 
are now considered indispensable in all well appointed gardens. How 
far mere fashion, with its despotic rule, should be credited with the 
change it would be difficult to say. More likely it has been brought 
about by the influence of the Royal Horticultural Society and by the 
horticultural Press, whose efforts have of late years been persistent in 
trying to bring about a more rational style of gardening. It is a happy 
omen, too, that the old inflexible stiff formal standards of judging are 
being relaxed, and efforts are being made to have flowers show^n more 
naturally as they grow. May good taste soon prevail and the flower- 
dresser's art become a crime. 
Of hardy plants the beautiful inhabitants of Alpine regions are 
considered by a majority of plant lovers to be by far the most 
fascinating. To be successful in their cultivation a properly constructed 
rockery or rock-garden is indispensable. The study of its construction 
is a study in Alpine plant growing. What too often passes for a rockery 
is a confused and dangerous conglomeration of stones with their jagged 
ends pointing heavenward, like pikes ready to impale their victims ; often, 
too, in the midst of the most incongruous surroundings suggestive of 
nothing in nature, and entirely unsuited for the purpose. 
To be able to set about the w^ork intelligently one must have some 
knowledge of the conditions under which the plants grow in their 
mountain homes. On the European Alps, so rich in its miniature flora. 
