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THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



of the series promised to those readers who wish to see my garden, and 

 who thoroughly understand that it is impossible for me either to invite 

 them or to receive them if they come uninvited. I know what Paul says 

 (Heb. xiii. 2), but my garden is my outdoor sanctum, and I keep on the 

 doors of all my sanctums a permanent inscription, " Shut up in a brown 

 study." Now, how are these rockeries made, and what shall we grow on 

 them? Perhaps, as I have introduced the reader once more to my garden, 

 I cannot do better than say how my small rockeries are constructed. In 

 the first place there is a plot of ground aftbrding a suitable site. We must 

 partly plant out that site, for the whole rockery ought not to be seen from 

 a distance, or it betrays its strictly artificial character, and such a thing 

 ought not to be measured and criticised from a distance, and, in fact, 

 ought not to be visible at all from dressed grounds, for it cannot harmonize 

 with architectural lines and perfect flower-beds. Well, we plant it out 

 with clumps of the choicest shrubs and trees, such as purple-leaved nut, 

 and berberry, weeping and variegated lime, holly, white-leaved maple, 



Siberian birch, American willow, and other subjects that fit appropriately 

 to either wild or polished scenes. Then we mark out the boundaries and 

 proportions of the rockeries, and as much as possible without descending 

 to severe formality, give the preference to semicircles and ellipses, so as to 

 get bold sweeps and connecting blocks, which may be made to jut out and 

 divide one portion from another. Then it is mere labourer's work to wheel 

 in a mass of clay or loam, or any stuff that may be had in bulk on the 

 premises, but best of all, clay, because almost any tree or shrub afterwards 

 planted on the heights will root in clay and prosper, and the material 

 holds moisture a long time. Now you have your banks in the rough ; 

 some are higher than others, so as to be seen as the eye roams over the 

 summits of those lower down ; and there is one way through to some 

 interesting spot or entertaining object, and another way out to the lawns 

 or shrubberies, or water scenes ; and where the rockeries are vast enough, 

 •water can be introduced with delightful eff'ect. But I am dealing with 



