lEISH GARDENING 



73 



Review* 



Rockeries: How to Make and Plant Them. 



Cassfxl's have just piililishcd, for the small sum 

 of Is. 3(1., a book of some 150 pages and many 

 illustrations, entitled " Eockeries : How to ^Nlake 

 and Plant them," by H. H. Thomas and S. 

 Arnott. This is essentially a book for the 

 beginner and is full of iisefvil information. The 

 chapters on rockwork, building and planting, wall 

 water and bog gardens are particularly good ; the 

 methods are clearly and simply explained, and 

 the accompanying diagrams are instructive and 

 helpful. The all too short chapter upon propa- 

 gation is pei'haps the best in the book. 



The chapter on " ^Moraines " is, however, not 

 so good. In 

 it the writers 

 appear to 

 have missed 

 t h e w h o 1 e 

 point of the 

 s o - c a 1 1 e d 

 " n\oraines.'" 

 Their use — as 

 the authors 

 correctly 

 state at the 

 c o mmenc e- 

 ment of the 

 chapter — is 

 "to ni a k e 

 easy the cul- 

 tivation of 

 certain al- 

 pine s that 

 are otherwise 

 very d i f f i- 

 cult." Such 

 '' difficult" 

 plants are, as 

 a rule, those 

 w h i c h a r o 

 liable t o 

 damp off in 

 the winter 

 unless their 

 roots are 

 kept away 

 from clog- 

 ging earth and the sturdy habit of growth 

 induced by the starvation diet they get in the 

 true " moraine." For such i)lants the " moraines" 

 described by the authors — with, in one case loam 

 and leaf-mould only 5 inches below the stones, and 

 in another case a 12 -inch layer of rich loain 

 and manure — would usually prove fatal. True 

 moraine plants will be found to require at least 

 18 inches of pure stone chips, or chips with the 

 least possible sprinkling of soil or leaf-mould, to 

 grow in. A few inches of stone chips or gravel 

 (sand is equally good) laid o^^er a bed of rich soil 

 is not a " moraine " at all in the now usually 

 accepted meaning of the word. In such a bed 

 practically all alpines will grow and flourish except 

 those very plants for which " moraines " are 

 really necessary and intended, and the few 

 true moraine plants which appear in the authors' 

 list at the end of this chapter would soon be 

 swamped if one attempted to grow them side by 

 side with the majority of those mentioned in the 



ANEMONE Pulsatilla alba. 



list. Campanulas alpestris and cenisia cannot be 

 grown with strong growing Achillea and Phloxes. 

 About 80 per cent, of the plants on the " moraine 

 plants " list ax"e by no means " difficult," but 

 would grow ecjually well in ordinary light soil ; 

 a few of those mentioned are true moraine plants, 

 and, a few woiilcl do better out of the moraine 

 than in it. The true moraine plants are, as a riile, 

 expensive to buy and difficiilt to keep and pro- 

 pagate, and the beginner would be well advised 

 to leave them alone until he has gained some 

 experience, and confine his attention to the 

 easier plants mentioned in Chapter XII., he will 

 here find the " easier " fully dealt with, and if he 

 follows the cultural directions given with thenx 

 he can hardly go wrong. 



The only other advei'se criticism I would pass 

 upon this otherwise valuable and instructive book 



is upon 



some of the 



"select" 

 lists with 

 which it 

 concludes, 

 the inclusion 

 of some in 

 and exclu- 

 sion of other 

 plants froni 

 the list 

 of " Choice 

 Rock Plants" 

 is somewhat 

 difficult to 

 understand, 

 and the 

 selection of 

 " low grow- 

 ing shrubs " 

 is not a 

 particularly 

 happy one. 

 For instance, 

 Pines are 

 represented 

 by P. Cem- 

 bra and P. 

 edulis to the 

 exclusion of 

 the progeny 

 forms of P. 

 s y 1 V e s t r i s 

 and P. Strobus and the Picea excelsa pygmies, 

 such as pygma^a, Remonti and Clanbrasiliana, are 

 not mentioned at all. There is a good index and 

 many illustrations. IMxtrrav IIorxibkook. 



Plants and the Winten 



With reference to the letter from Sir F. W. 

 Moore in our last issue, we have already received 

 accounts of plants killed and injured, which, when 

 published, will be most interesting and use- 

 ful. As the month of May will undoubtedly 

 reveal more truly the extent of the damage done 

 in some districts the lists will not be published 

 until later, probably July, to give observers 

 ample opportunity of noting the behaviour of 

 their plants in the warmer weather. 



In this connection we illustrate a Pittosporum, 

 growing in the Eoyal Botanic Gardens, Glas- 

 nevin, which, normally a fine evergreen, is now 

 completely defoliated. 



