1877.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
261 
Something About Alpine Flowers. 
There are several works, English and French, de¬ 
voted to Alpine Flowers, while a number of nur¬ 
serymen in Europe, and a few in- this country, have 
lists of plants classed as Alpine. That some of our 
cultivators are interested in the subject is shown by 
letters asking “what are Alpine Flowers?”—A 
very brief answer to these would he—“ flowers of 
the Alps, or of those mountains sufficiently elevat¬ 
ed to be classed as alpine.” This definition would 
not quite meet the 
case, for if one looks 
into the catalogues 
of Alpine Flowers, 
in some of the ela- 
borate European 
works on these 
plants, he will find 
those that do not 
grow on high moun¬ 
tains at all, or if 
they do, are found 
much more abun¬ 
dantly not far from 
the sea-level; such, 
for example, as the 
common and beauti¬ 
ful Bluets, figured 
last month, and the 
curious Lady’s Slip¬ 
pers—or Cypripedi- 
ums, referred to and 
illustrated in Doctor 
Gray’s article in the 
same number. In a 
geographical classi¬ 
fication of plants, 
there are certain spe¬ 
cies found only at 
high elevations, near 
the limits of perpe¬ 
tual snow; these 
plants, which in the Alpine regions of Europe are 
found at an average elevation of about 600 feet, are 
properly called Alpine. The elevation at which these 
or their relatives and representatives will be found, 
as we go South, will vary greatly, and the parts of 
the Andes and the Himalayas, occupied by a simi¬ 
lar vegetation, will be some 12 to 15,000 feet. Then, 
as we go northward, we find that the same or 
similar plants are found on low mountains, or 
what we should call hills, and when we approach 
the Arctic limit of plant life, the general vege¬ 
tation at the sea-level is in part the same as, or 
composed of plants closely related to, those found 
on the European Alps. But in our horticultural 
grouping, (it can hardly be called classification), 
of plants, we do not follow that of geographical 
botany. In the catalogues of cultivators and the 
books on cultivation of Alpine plants, all are in¬ 
cluded that bear a general resemblance in manner 
of growth and habit to the plants that are geo¬ 
graphically Alpine. Then to get at the meaning of 
the term Alpine, as horticulturally applied, we 
must know what arc the peculiar characteristics of 
the plants found in the proper Alpine regions. 
Botanical description will not avail here, as the 
Alpine plants are, mostly, of the same genera with 
those which grow at lower altitudes, and it must 
be some common features of habit and growth, 
which, adapting them to a life in a peculiar locality, 
makes them different from other plants and mark 
them as distinctively Alpine. The most concise 
| and sensible characterization of these plants that we 
have met with, is that given by Verlot of the Jardin 
dcs Plantes, in his “ Les Plantes Alpines," a most 
elaborate and beautifully illustrated work, and one 
which has been largely used, though seldom quoted 
from, by various English writers on these plants. 
M. Yerlot says that the “ distinctive characters of 
Alpine plants may be summed up as follows: Their 
Boots are deeply implanted in the soil, mostly very 
branching, and in most cases, greatly exceeding in 
length, the stems of the plants to which they sup¬ 
ply nourishment. The Stems are very short, even 
| in the woody species, und in these they are often 
bent and rooting. The Leaves are usually reduced 
to the smallest size, rarely smooth, sometimes 
odorous, more or less hairy or rough, and with a 
disposition to grow in the form of a rosette, and 
finally: The Flowers are often sessile, (short stemmed 
or no stems), of varied or uniform colors, which 
are always very lively.” Such being the characters 
of the true Alpine plants, in cultivation we add to 
them other, but low-land, plants which resemble 
them in these particulars, and a garden collection 
of Alpines will include a variety of low growing, 
small leaved plants of compact form, with large 
Fig. 2.— THE alpine toad-flax. — {Linaria, alpina.) 
and showy flowers, or, if the individual flowers are 
not large, a great profusion of smaller flowers. 
The question will occur to the amateur, can we 
cultivate in our gardens these interesting plants, 
which mostly belong to elevated localities ? So far 
as the climate of England is concerned, the answer 
would be—yes; but in this country more unfavor¬ 
able than England, by as much as that country is 
more unfavorable than the Alps, the answer must 
be modified. We will say that with proper care, a 
large share of the Alpine plants—a much larger 
than one would at first suppose—may be cultivated 
even in our unforbidding climate of the Atlantic 
States, in part upon specially built rock-work, and 
in part in the open border. Leaving for another 
article the question of rock-work, we will consider 
Alpine Plants in tile Open Border. 
It has often been stated in these columns that 
Fig. 1.— STEMLESS gentian. —( Gentiana acaulis.) 
many plants usually regarded as tender, could, with 
proper care, be made to survive our winters. So 
with Alpine plants ; many of those which naturally 
grow only in elevated regions, or in conditions un¬ 
like those of our gardens may be made, not only to 
live, but to grow in 
the open border. 
Yerlot, quoted above, 
states that one of 
the characters of Al¬ 
pine plants is, to 
have deep-growing 
much branched 
roots, often exceed¬ 
ing in length the 
above-ground por¬ 
tion of the plant. It 
is upon the observ¬ 
ance of this charac¬ 
ter that much of our 
success with Alpine 
plants will depend. 
Every care must be 
taken with the roots. 
As we do not pro¬ 
pose, at the present 
time, to write a trea¬ 
tise upon Alpine 
plants, we will mere¬ 
ly confine ourselves 
to this point. To 
have success with 
these plants, how¬ 
ever they may be ob¬ 
tained, from their 
native localities, 
from the collections 
of nurserymen, or from seeds, (seeds sown in pots 
being an excellent method), the chief care must be 
for the roots. It is not our hot suns upon the 
foliage that kills Alpine plants, for in their native 
localities they have fora while, at least long enough 
to kill the leaves, a very intense sun, but all the 
while their abundant roots are far down beyond 
the reach of this influence. Therefore, those who 
would grow Alpine plants in the border, must pro¬ 
vide, firstly, a deep soil, and secondly, a mulch to 
prevent evaporation. A bit of practice will give a 
useful lesson in such cases. Several years ago one 
of our associates went on one of those, so-called, 
