SOME BOOKS ON ROCK-GARDENING AND ALPINE PLANTS. 407 



(1907), the first of this many-sided author's gardening books, and 

 I suppose as well known as any book on the subject. 



All we need do here, then, is to note the effect it has produced. It 

 inaugurated a new way of writing and thinking about Alpine plants, 

 a more personal and critical view, which was especially responded to by 

 amateurs already a little way along the road of good rock-gardening — 

 those past the " fill it up with Lithospermum prostratum, Aubrietia, 

 and Mossy Saxifrages " stage, but not beyond feeling one patch of 

 Saxijraga Aizoon, a rosette of longijolia, and some colonies of Cotyledon 

 a noble tribute to the family. 



For such the chapters on Saxifrages, for instance, were revelations. 

 A mixture of practical knowledge of the plants, both in their native 

 mountains and under cultivation, with whimsical ideas, illustrated 

 with quotations and references resulting from wide reading and a 

 remarkable memory, go to make up a conversational style of writing 

 that amuses the reader as well as instructing him. Wild and weird 

 adjectives gathered from Edward Lear, friends with Malapropian 

 tendencies or even at times coined on the spot by the writer, lead 

 him on till thus beguiled he finds himself keenly interested, and, what 

 is more, likely to remember that "true Gentiana gelida is a dingy 

 cluster-headed Caucasian and the true algida a Siberian species rather 

 like a spoiled and bloated Pneumonanthe, whose colour has run." 



Another influence the book has had is to induce people to pro- 

 nounce aright certain specifics in constant use. To quote from the 

 preface, this has been accomplished thus : — 



"As for spelling, some may be shocked by ' Himalya ' and 

 ' Aeizoeides ' ; my only aim in this was to help the proper pronunciation, 

 it being quite as easy to say Aeizoeides, which is right, as Aizoydes or 

 Aizoides, which are both wrong." The constant occurrence of the 

 unusual spelling of these words is offensive to the eye, but their blessed 

 influence has been very comforting to the ear. 



Those who have read and liked and learnt from this volume will 

 read and enjoy the same author's "Alpine and Bog Plants "* (1908) 

 and " In a Yorkshire Garden "* (1909). This last is the book which is 

 mainly responsible for the so-called moraine garden of the present day, 

 the small bed surrounded by stone filled with road-mending material 

 of many gardens, which has prolonged the life, or dying agonies, of 

 many a difficult Alpine. 



Even Mr. Farrer, I think, would admit that these primitive 

 moraines are not all he claims for them in climates unlike that of 

 Ingleborough. His claims that one can of water was all-sufficient 

 to keep them cool and moist below in a period of drought, and that 

 they were free from weeds, have not been everywhere justified. 

 For underground pipes are now favoured adjuncts, and everything in 

 the garden that has never yet germinated a seed, as well as all the 

 weeds of the neighbourhood, fill my moraines with a few treasures 

 and material for haycocks of rubbish. Yet the moraine is a joy, and 

 we have this book to thank for many successful ones. 



