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JOUKNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



cool place, but the Silene must be well grown if it is not to be crowded 

 out by the Hutchinsia at the start. One of the most beautiful and 

 commonest combinations in the Alps is of Campanula barbata and St. 

 Bruno's lily. This needs a large rock garden if the plants are to be 

 combined in any quantity, and they should be planted close together, as they 

 do not spread. Both can be easily raised from seed, and both thrive in 

 the same fairly cool and undrained positions. 



Then there is a wonderful mixture I have seen of Anemone alpina and 

 Aquilegia alpina, a combination I despair of accomplishing, because, for 

 some mysterious reason, the alpine columbine, which surpasses all others 

 in beauty, deteriorates quickly in captivity, even when you can get it true. I 

 have found it in abundance above Champery growing in the rocks of a northern 

 slope with the alpine anemone, but nurserymen never seem to have the true 

 plant, and if you buy seed under that name it is pretty sure to turn out 

 some variety of Aquilegia vulgaris. Yet the two species are quite distinct, 

 and no one could ever for a moment mistake the alpine columbine for any 

 other. The Swiss themselves prize it more than most of their flowers, and 

 sometimes they cultivate it about the higher chalets. It is not a plant of 

 very high altitudes, and ought to be easy enough both to grow and to 

 obtain — at least from seed. But there is some mystery about it which, 

 since it is the most beautiful of all alpine flowers, ought to be solved. I 

 may note also that the only way to succeed with Anemone alpina and 

 A. sulphur ea is to sow fresh seed and to plant out the seedlings as soon 

 as possible. They dislike nothing so much as disturbance, and a full 

 grown plant of either will seldom get over it. Other combinations I 

 may suggest are Dianthus alpinus and Saxifraga caesia, both of which 

 like lime and a fairly cool place ; or Dianthus alpinus and Campanula 

 excisa, for the alpine pink is a plant of the higher turf and likes its roots 

 to be mixed with the roots of other plants, like so many other alpines. 

 Campanula excisa has a bad reputation, but it can be raised easily from 

 seed, and if planted out with little disturbance will send out its little 

 suckers in all directions, mixing up with the Pink but not smothering it. 

 I am convinced, too, that Gentiana verna likes to be mixed with other 

 plants ; it is usually finest and most abundant in the turf, but many of 

 its usual associates in the Alps will smother it in England, and it should 

 be combined with small plants like Androsace lactea or A. obtusifolia. 

 As for Gentiana acaulis, of which the two best forms I know are our 

 English cultivated Gentianella and the sky-blue variety called 1 Caeles- 

 tina,' it can be combined with Dryas octopetala or with Polygala 

 Chamaebuxtis, if the latter is kept low and given plenty of space. Then 

 we can plant Silene alpestris with Viola calcarata or with Campanula 

 yulla, when the two will intermix their suckers and make a beautiful 

 combination. The alpine poppy goes well with the alpine aster as both 

 thrive in flat stony places, and there the poppy, which is often a biennial 

 or annual in our climate, will seed itself freely. 



In the Alps one sees plants growing in masses of one species, and one 

 sees different species interwoven. In our rock gardens, we should aim at 

 the same mixture of massing and combination ; and where we have masses 

 or combinations of freely growing plants, we need not have too many 

 rocks. Let there be a large rock for each plant to root under and leave 



