A SOURCE OF DELIGHT AND INTEREST 15 
who will taste the sweets of satisfaction and enjoyment 
in its possession, but rather the enthusiast who learns to 
know plants individually, and procures here one and 
there another and installs them in the home of his own 
preparation, gradually acquiring a collection with every 
item of which he is fondly familiar. The making of any 
kind of garden should be a work of gradual development 
and evolution, not a task to be begun and completed in 
one hurried operation, and this applies perhaps more 
particularly to a garden of alpine plants, whether large 
or small. 
Sites, situations and soils must of necessity govern to 
a great extent the selections of plants that should be 
included in a collection, but the character and capabili- 
ties of alpine plants vary so widely that some may be found 
adaptable to any locality and aspect, and furthermore, 
the comparatively small size of most alpines renders it 
a simple and inexpensive matter to provide little nooks 
and spaces for a variety of different subjects in such a 
manner as will ensure the happiness and well-being of 
all. 
The erstwhile prevalent idea regarding a rockery was 
that it should be a heap of stones, clinkers, brick-bats, 
and rubbish in some out-of-the-way corner of the garden, 
under a spreading tree, or anywhere where nothing much 
would grow, the occupants generally comprising a few 
rough fern roots, and coarse-growing periwinkle, prim- 
roses, and German Iris. Small wonder that rockeries 
were looked upon with disdain and contempt. 
Thanks to the output of gardening literature to meet 
