14 
LES PLANTES DES ALPES. 
containing about 230 species of flowering plants, which are found 
nowhere else. M. Correvon estimates that out of about 900 species 
of flowers found in the alpine districts upwards of 700 are worth 
cultivating. About fifty of these have hitherto defied all attempts to 
tame them, but even of these M. Correvon does not despair. Perhaps 
half of the remainder may strictly be called mountain or rock plants, 
but besides these we have a catalogue of all the best rock plants 
in cultivation from all the mountains in the world. These are all 
arranged according to their botanical orders, and the soil and aspect 
in which each is to be planted are given. We extract two examples 
of the way in which the directions are given:— 
Polygala chamcchuxus .—A somewhat capricious plant; sometimes it 
grows very well in ordinary soil, provided it has shade, whilst in other 
cases no care or precautions will make it grow. In general it prefers 
bog soil, moisture, and sunshine. I have raised it from seed, and 
cultivate it in light soil mixed with sphagnum. 
Gypsophila repens .—Indigenous to limestone rocks, but it grows so 
readily that one meets with it'everywhere, even on granite. It is one 
of the best of rockery plants; it flowers from May to November, and 
suits itself to all soils and all aspects. It is also a useful basket plant, 
because of its long hanging branches, which are very effective when 
loaded with flowers. 
These extracts are sufficient to show the style of the book; for the 
cultivation of some plants we have more precise and detailed 
directions. All who grow alpines know how difficult a plant 
Soldanella alpina is—not to make grow, but to make flower, and it 
is interesting to read the minute details of the plan by which M. 
Correvon succeeded in making it flower well. 
The chapters which deal with the formation of rockeries and alpine 
beds cannot fail to be read with interest. We are rightly told that 
many alpines may be grown quite as successfully in level borders as 
on steep rockeries, provided the conditions of drainage and soil are 
suitable; if the soil is heavy and wet these defects may be remedied 
by the bed being raised two feet above the ground level, though it is 
not wet, but stagnant wet, which hurts alpines. We cannot, however,, 
entirely agree with M. Correvon in the directions he gives for the 
formation of a rockery, when he speaks of cementing the stones 
together. Stones for rockery ought to be so fitted as to interlock 
firmly without any possibility of their either sinking or slipping, and 
ought not to depend on the soil, or on mortar, for being kept in their 
places. There is one more point to which we would direct the special 
attention of those interested in the growth of alpines—the way in which 
old walls may be utilised for this purpose. In the concluding chapter of 
the work we have this subject treated of in such a way as to make us 
wish we could convert all our boundary walls into alpine gardens. 
We are told on the last page that the growth of alpines is “ more a 
question of suitable conditions of soil than anything else,” and we 
may say that every year’s experience tends more to convince us of the 
truth of this maxim.— Gardener's Chronicle. 
