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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



quite a tree; the Camellias, Azaleas, and Ehododendrons form a kind 

 of wood, and one can walk in their shade. 



In the rock-garden I saw, long years ago, the best Atragene alpina 

 alba I have ever seen; it was hanging from a high rock and covered 

 with its large pure white flowers. Vhilesia huxifolia is there in beauti- 

 ful state and flowers abundantly, as it does, too, in the Botanic Garden 

 of Edinburgh, where everything seems to grow well. I am indeed 

 jealous over this Chilian plant, which will not flower at Floraire, and 

 which I saw grown like a weed by Messrs. Cunningham and Fraser 

 at Edinburgh. There are also some creeping spruces here which are 

 really a marvel. 



I have said the English climate suits alpine plants better than our 

 continental climate in Switzerland; and I rest this statement, so to 

 say, upon the comparisons I have been able to establish since I first 

 visited England — ^that is to say, since 1886. Nevertheless, in what 

 concerns those of the highest regions, the tufted and thick-set dwarfs 

 (Eritrichiums, Androsaces, certain Primulas, Campanulas, Gentians, 

 and Saxifrages), the advantage is on our side. And yet I must acknow- 

 ledge that I have seen alpine plants most delicate and difficult to 

 cultivate succeed perfectly in certain English gardens. Mrs. Saunders, 

 at Wennington Hall (Lancaster), cultivates in a limit little adapted, 

 for it is within the boundaries of a kitchen garden, treasures that few | 

 cultivators of alpines have ever succeeded in growing. I have seen 

 there, flowering wonderfully, the following species : Eritrichium nanum 

 (grown from seeds), Aquilegia alpina, Androsace glacialis, A. helvetica, 

 A. puhescens, A. carnea, A. villosa, Phyteuma hemisphaericum. Azalea 

 procumbens, Ranunculus alpestris and R. parnassifolius, Anemone 

 alpina, A. sulfurea and A. narcissi flora, Arnica montana, Trifolium 

 alpinum, every sort of Gentians, Primulas, Soldanellas, Campanulas, 

 Saxifrages, Drabas, &c. 



Mr. W. H. St. Quintin, of Eillington, in Yorkshire, grows every 

 kind of rare thing, too, with an equal success. Aquilegia alpina flowers 

 freely with him, and so does Pyrola uniflora. He grows beautifully, 

 too, Eritrichium (from seeds), as did my late friend the Hon. Charles i 

 Ellis, of Frensham Hall, and so, I think, does Mr. H. Burroughs, , 

 of Stamford. Mr. St. Quintin succeeds in growing Eritrichiums from \ 

 seeds ripened in his garden ! ! 



I cannot speak of the Edinburgh Botanic Garden otherwise than i 

 as a terrestrial Paradise for alpine plant lovers ; neither can I express j 

 adequately here the pleasure I had in a visit I paid last year to Professor j 

 Balfour and his rockeries. The collection of rare alpines which are \ 

 grown at Edinburgh is so great and these plants are so healthy that i 

 I cannot but repeat what I wrote last year in the Gardeners' Chronicle : i 

 " Although I do not cultivate the sin of jealousy, I greatly envy the 

 success which has attended some English and Scotch gardeners in 

 their cultivation of choice alpines." 



^fi ^ ^ ^ 



Now let me ask you to look for a moment at the alpine gardens 



