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ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 
CHAP Thy I 
Of Shrubs and their Placing 
Now, the supreme test of the rock-gardener’s craft lies 
in the placing of his shrubs. Without expecting of any 
European the unerring tact of Chinese and Japanese in 
combining rock-work with shrub-life until a mighty 
precipice is imitated, to perfect scale, within a space of 
two or three yards of built-up stone, clothed, at all the 
right points, with what seems the tormented, wind- 
flogged vegetation of a thousand years, yet one may 
deplore the sad fact that too often shrubs are dumped at 
haphazard into the rock-garden, like punctuation into 
some women’s letters, with no regard for relevance. As 
a matter of fact, too much importance can hardly be set 
on the right placing of big and little bushes among the 
boulders—as by their wise disposition the scheme of the 
whole may be keyed up to grandeur and illusion, or 
reduced to a mean chaos. Of course the rules in this 
matter are a question for individual observation; yet 
here, perhaps, it is more possible than elsewhere to point 
out definite details of right or wrong. For instance. 
On the top of a mimic cliff plant prostrate overhanging 
Junipers and Retinosporas—which, by curling reluctantly 
over its rim, will give an impression of height and ferocity 
to the rock-face. At the bottom, to one side or to the 
* other, set pillar Junipers, blue columnar Junipers, any 
slender upright evergreen; for this, in turn, will add 
a 
NEW YC 
BOTAN 
. GARDE 
