CHAPTER X 
THE ALPINE HOUSE 
This small unheated house — in reality an adjunct to the Rock Garden — 
is situated at the north end of the Herb Garden close to No. II. 
The A1 ’ Museum. First built in 1887, it was enlarged to its 
Flora PinC P resen t s ^ ze *891 . It is now 40 feet long, 9 feet 
wide and 8 feet 6 inches high. There is no more at- 
tractive flora on the earth than that which is found in high Alpine 
regions. As much of it as possible is represented in the Rock Garden, 
but there are many of the smaller species, which in a state of nature 
are covered with snow for six months of the year, that will not succeed 
there. The change from their half-year’s sleep, warm and undis- 
turbed beneath the snow, to the unrest of a winter and spring in the 
Thames Valley with its alternate freezing and thawing, is too violent 
for them. Then there are other plants, not necessarily Alpine, which 
flower early in the year, but whose blossoms are of too delicate a 
nature to withstand the buffeting and generally inclement conditions 
of that season out-of-doors. It is such plants which this house is 
designed to shelter and display. During most of the year they are 
grown in frames in shallow pots and pans plunged to the rim in ashes. 
Fully exposed nearly all the year, they can, however, be covered 
with the glass lights whenever necessary. As they approach the 
flowering state they are taken into the Alpine House, where the flowers 
can open and be enjoyed in comfort by visitors. The house begins 
to be attractive in the middle of December, and a succession of plants 
keeps it so until June. As the flowers fade the plants are returned 
to their original quarters in the frames. 
At the beginning of the season the most important part of the 
display is made by bulbous plants. The most prominent are snow- 
drops, crocuses, species of narcissus, and bulbous irises. In January 
and February there are in flower, among others, the hardy cyclamens 
(C. Count and C. ibericum), Saxifraga Burseriana , S. apiculata, and 
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