J ane 11 , 1891, ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
4G3 
nightingalea that fille 3 the air with melody till the thunder cirae 
after that bright Tulip day, and Iraught il and the concert to a 
close.—A Novice. 
FREE GROWING ALPINES. 
Tme term “free growing” I hero employ to distinguish the 
plants I shill presently name from the more diminutive Alpines, 
the mijority of which are slow growers, and better suited for 
culture in pots or for growing upon the well made rockery ; those 
which I regard as “ free growing ” are better adapted for clothing 
bare spotj quickly, and such happily that only require ordinary 
skill and intelligence to make them quite a success. 
Under this head I would include the whole, or at least the 
larger portion, of the Alpine Phloxes, and in particular the many 
beautiful varieties of P. setacea, also P. subulata, P. frondosa, 
P. amoena, P. reptans, and others. We have in these collectively 
a charming variety of colour, and considerable difference also in 
time of flowering and of duration. All these, moreover, are at 
the present time making a wonderful display of their flowers, and 
borne upon the tiny prostrate tufts of somewhat spiny leaves in 
-dense masses that cannot fail to please. They may be gi’own on a 
level piece of ground without the least fear of their charms being 
marred by pelting rains, for the density of their cushion-like tufts 
is a safe guarantee in this direction. On the rockery, again, where 
4arge patches could be planted 2 or 3 feet or more across, nothing 
is more beautiful ; or planted again on the summit of a low, 
rugge 1 wall, and allowed to droop naturally over the sides. 
Some years ago I had under my charge many such wall®, all 
erected for a purpose, yet at the same time the useful was also 
rendered beautiful. Save for occasional internal supports or 
“dieaders ” through the wall, if the height of the latter demanded 
it, many of these walls were hollowed in the centre, and this space 
was eventually filled by soil, sometimes 2 feet, and sometimes 
3 feet deep. On the summit of these walls shallow pockets were 
constructed, and the most showy and free flowering of Alpine 
plants found themselves in possession of a home, the suitability of 
which none ever doubted who saw the plants ; in fact, till the 
secret of the depth of soil contained in these hollow walls was 
known many who saw the plants were not a little surprised at their 
vigour. 
In such places as these we planted freely Rock Roses, Aubrietias 
which overhung the sides in their rich telling carpets of colour, 
Hutchinsia alpina, Dianthuses in variety. Snapdragons, Linarias, 
particularly alpina, quantities of Saxifrages and Sedums, and Wall¬ 
flowers and purple Honesty in many available crevices. These 
by no means exhaust the list, but it may suffice to show what 
variety of showy plants may be gathered together in places of 
this kind. 
The varieties of Phlox setacea include some charming pure 
whites, vivid pink, rose, and dark red purple, all alike beautiful and 
highly ornamental. The Aubrietias as just named are equally free 
and most enduring. The most distinct of the Mossy ISaxifragas, 
such as muscoides atro-purpurea and Wallacei (Camposi), should 
always be borne in mind. The former is quite unique in its moss¬ 
like carpet of the most beautiful green, covered during Api'il and 
May with myriads of its rosy purple flowers. These are extremely 
attractive. S. Wallacei, on the other hand, of more vigorous 
growth, flowers for a much longer period than the one just noticed, 
and keeps up a continuous display of pure white flowers, which for 
elegance and grace are fitted for association with the choicest of 
flowers, and would undoubtedly have figured long ago in many a 
choice bouquet, but its stems are too brittle to endure wiring with 
any safety. It is easily gi’own and readdy increased. 
Then, again, tike the whole range of the Gentian family from 
end to end, and what have we to compare with, or what to vie in 
intrinsic beauty, the old garden Gentianella, G. acaulis ? It is at 
once the most vigorous grower and the most profuse flowering of 
its race, ar-1 above and beyond these facts specially suited to a 
hirge proportion of English gardens. Speaking of its profuse 
flowering reminds me that I hive small plants now flowering 
averaging 4 inches across and bearing a dozen flowers, some of the 
best carrying as many as sixteen and eighteen flowers ; in fact, in 
every growth a flower. Our soil is a light loam overlying a deep 
bed of gravel ; and my experience in the cultivation of this 
Gentian is that it grows and flowers with great freedom always 
where either a gravelly subsoil or a subsoil of sandstone prevails. 
I do not, however, infer that it does not do equally well on other 
soils than those named, yet I know some twenty-five-year-old 
clumos in a garden where the soil is heavy and overlyinar blue lias 
clay that just keep alive and rarely produce a flower. Within the 
past ten years I have divided and replanted some of the clumps, 
adding old mortar and giving fresh soil, but with little or no result. 
The growth is slow and small and the plants by' no means happy. 
I do not, however, know another instance where this lovely plant 
appears so difficult to please. 
Such Primulas, too, as rosea, denticulata, cashmeriana, and 
intermedia are all extremely beautiful and among the easiest to 
grow, delighting at all times in a cool and somewhat moist soil of a 
loamy nature ; though, given the shade and moisture, they are by no 
means particular as to soil, for I have had them doing equally as 
well on a reddish clay as on a deep sandy loam, and I consider the 
position named to be a primary point, particularly' for the three 
first ; while intermedia will welcome abundant supplies of moisture 
all through its growing season. What a host of charming and useful 
plants we have in the dwarf Campanulas, especially the pumila 
section ! What pleasing sheets may be formed, for example, with 
pumila, pumila alba, pusilla, the rich drooping solitary flowers of 
pulla—all these quickly form exquisite masses of colour, and with 
by little or no trouble when once planted. Surely everyone who 
reads the Journal knows something of the sno w-white purity of 
pumila alba and its sheets of bell-shaped flowers barely G inch* s 
high. What a lovely plant for pots or the rockery ! Otheis equally 
beautiful, though more at home on the rockery or suspended in 
pots, are C. isophylla and its pure white form fragilis and fragilis 
hirsuta, garganica, and others ; while turbinata and carpatica, with 
its forms pallida and alba, are equally beautiful in masses, but grow 
to a foot high or rather more. 
Cheiranthus alpinus, Iberis corifolia, Tiarella cordifolia, Iris 
nudicaulis, Saponaria ocymoides. Lychnis Ligascie, Aster alpinus, 
Arnebia echioides are all very beautiful and interesting in their 
way, and well suited for growing in the majority of gardens, and 
in the main providing a rich and lengthened display of flowers. 
These are a few of the many that could be named that would 
amply repay a good deal of care, if this latter were needed, but 
seeing they may be grown so easily there is little reason why they 
should not be grown abundantly in many gardens where they are 
now seldom seen.—J. H. E. 
SIXTY YEARS OF HORTICULTURAL PROGRESS. 
(1760-1820). 
( Continued fi'om lyage 23S,') 
Though in its size the London of 130 years ago, big as it 
seemed to the folks of that day, was a mere dwarf beside our 
modern metropolis, it exei'cised then an important influence upon 
British horticulture. Many circumstances combined to make the 
capital a centre of information and a recipient of rarities from 
distant countries, but owing to the tardiness of inland communi¬ 
cation neither knowledge nor plants travelled frequently or 
speedily to distant towns and villages. Gardening pursuits had no 
periolicil or journal devoted to them, ani they were seldom 
referred to in the ordinary newspapers of the time. Hence not a 
few of those who followed horticulture for pleasure or profit while 
George III. reigned looked upon a visit to London as an event to 
be long remembered, and turned it to the best account in seeing 
notable London establishments, and “ interviewing ” men reputed 
to be skilful gardeners. 
To mention the name of Abercrombie is at once to recall the 
fact of the indebtedness of modern horticulture to many m^n 
whose native land was the northern division of Britain. Whatever 
old Sam Johnson might have felt in regard to the intrusion of 
Scotchmen into southern enterprise, looking at the matter from his 
point of view, we cannot but think that had he been anything of a 
gardener he would have commended Scottish skill and perseverance 
as manifested by such men as John Abercrombie. Indeed, his 
most important book, small in s'ze certainly, but rich in details 
beyond all of the kind that had preceded it, his “ Every Man His 
Own Gardener,” occupies a position no other work on gardening of 
George III.’s reign ran approach. More’s the pity, say some, that 
he did not at once acknowledge it to be his own, instead of trying 
to secure public patronage by putting on the title that it was 
partly written by Mawe, gardener t) the Duke of Leeds, and 
other gardeners. Doubtless he had from Mawe and several friendly 
gardeners sundry hints which he used, but the work was in reality 
quite his own, and though Dr. Goldsmith agreed to correct the 
style he did not. Abercrombie had, w'ben a lad, been working in his 
father’s market garden near Edinburgh, but started southward 
when eighteen, and obtained employment at some private gardens 
in London. One of these was at Leicester House, for then this 
mansion had grounds in the rear, occupying the space where we 
now see Lisle and Gerrard Streets. (How near the country 
approached to the metropolis about that time appears from the 
fact that just to the north of Oxford Street there were two farms 
of some extent, on which corn and vegetables were raised, and 
Tottenham Court Road had quite a rural aspect.) Abercrombie 
found many friends among the nurserymen, of Hoxton, Islington, 
