ALPINE GARDENS. 



85 



in which we take the most pride in our country — the Linnaea and 

 Eambertia — which leads me on to saying a few words about our 

 wall-gardens. 



The garden of the Linnaea is situated at Bourg St. Pierre in the 

 Valais, about three hours below the Hospice of the Grand St. Bernard, 

 at an altitude of 5400 feet. It covers a rounded rocky mound about 

 180 feet high on three sides with a superficial area of four acres. We 

 bought the ground in 1888, thanks partly to donations from members 

 of the English Alpine Club, and more especially to Professor Eomanes, 

 of Oxford. There were established some forty rockeries, constructed 

 very inaesthetically and with the most deplorable artistic effect, for 

 they were made by the keeper of the garden, a simple Yalaisan whom 

 we found and who cultivates it when he has a moment of time. We 

 have no regular help except an annual grant of £20 from the Swiss 

 Government, which goes to pay the said keeper. We can do nothing 

 artistic, and we have to content ourselves with what we have at hand. 

 But Nature herself works for us and with us, and there we have lively 

 reasons for encouragement and joy. In a rockery near the summit, 

 looking to the north, we have thousands and thousands of Papaver 

 alyinum (the true Alpine Poppy), decked out with the most delicate 

 tints. We keep them carefully separate from the Iceland Poppy, 

 which is on the western incline, 500 feet farther on and cut off by the 

 summit even of the garden, so that we have every opportunity of 

 preserving the pure race of the Pay aver alpinum. It has escaped from 

 its rockery and ornaments all our pathways and even a slope on the 

 western side, and more than a mile away the bright and sparkling 

 colours of the millions of little Alpine Poppies are distinctly visible. 



Another triumph of the Linnaea is the Alpine Sea-Holly {Eryngium 

 alpinum), which has there become superb and reproduces itself spon- 

 taneously ; its large involucre, its stalks, and even its upper leaves 

 become an intense violet blue in August and September. The delight- 

 ful Dianthus alpinus and D. neglectus are also quite at home " there, 

 and the Edelweiss is everywhere. Epilobium latifolium, a beautifully 

 fine plant, was sent me in 1890 from the gardens of Belvoir Castle, 

 and what we planted in the Willmott rockery has invaded all the north 

 of this rockery, situated at the summit of the garden, and grows there 

 wonderfully, eliciting cries of admiration from all visitors. 



Heuchera sanguinea succeeds in our rockeries admirably, and the 

 tint of its rosy flowers is so gorgeous that it produces an absolutely 

 fantastic effect. In the rockery of the Balkans that the King of Bul- 

 garia has had built, and which bears his name, we cultivate a complete 

 selection of Balkanic plants that his Majesty sent from Sofia. Cam- 

 panula Raineri, Zoysii, Allionii and excisa invade certain rocks to 

 such an extent that we have to abandon them entirely. The Primulas 

 also do wonderfully up there, but we cannot often enjoy them, for they 

 flower in May and June at a time at which it is difficult to go and 

 admire them. 



As a rule the flora of elevated regions, especially that which feara 



