294 PEACTICAL GARDENING. 



place, unless it happens that the water is so constructed as to 

 enable it to be well seen from the opposite path. On this 

 account it is better to carry out a sort of bay, round two- 

 thirds of which the rocks can be so constructed as to form 

 a kind of rough amphitheatre, so that those standing at the 

 entrance, or near it, may see pretty nearly all without going 

 nearer. There must be no uniformity in the construction of 

 the rocks, and the plants selected for them must not be the 

 diminutive little alpines that you must be close to before you 

 can see them, but for the most part the bolder kinds, which 

 are a feature in themselves, and such of the smaller ones as 

 are covered with bloom ; and as there will be great fissures 

 provided, as well as dry and shallow receptacles for soil, 

 even shrubs and trees of ajDpropriate kinds may be planted 

 and grown to advantage. The tops of the rock-work must 

 be composed of bold crags, here and there, and the outhne 

 must be broken by gaps ; some of the pieces should be broad 

 on the upper part, and form wide shelves, and in all parts the 

 features, as it were, should be large. On the land side great 

 attention should be paid to the natural construction, and the 

 lower part, near the ground, may be strewed with fragments, 

 among wliich plants of various sorts should be growing. The 

 crags may be also bold on the land side, and the plants from 

 top to bottom equally choice and varied. If a mound forms 

 part of the height on the land side, it is perfectly natural, 

 as in mountainous places the rocks protrude sometimes half- 

 way up, and generally in patches, up the whole face of 

 the mountain ; and so also with smaller hills and rising 

 grounds; but all this will be very trumpery if done on a 

 small scale. 



With these general remarks, our friends who are desirous 

 of making rock-work will be able to set about their work 

 with right notions ; and many who think they have rock- 

 work, because they have a few clinkers and flint stones piled 

 one above the other, will be as anxious to destroy the ves- 

 tiges of some party's simplicity. If we have not the means 

 of forming proper rock- work upon a scale of sufficient extent, 

 the next best plan is to have it built with bricks, but stiU to 

 adopt a style of some kind ; but always — for we cannot im- 

 press this upon the mind too deeply nor too often — make it 

 large enough, or not at all. An artist of some celebrity in 

 imitation has recently completed a jumble of something be- 



