22 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



there is a sloping bank, now happily made flat. It must constantly 

 be remembered that the plants and not the stones are the main 

 point in rock gardens. The stones are merely the frame and must 

 be kept from intruding into the picture. 



What Mr. Farrer means by " Boulder leads to boulder in an or- 

 dered sequence, and treating your rocks as syllables in a sentence to 

 make a coherent whole" is well illustrated in this picture. Several 

 of the stones are disconnected, with the result that water has 

 evidently washed soil from precious roots. Therefore the place 

 is half bare. It will also be noticed that the few plants doing well 

 are the ones with the stones protecting their roots from dis- 

 turbance. 



For the amateur, simply wishing to experiment with the more 

 easily grown rock-plants, so as to find out if he really has a taste 

 for this form of gardening, the sloping bank in which half a dozen 

 stones are partly buried, will do perfectly well as a beginning. It 

 is far easier and pleasanter to begin modestly and gradually 

 expand, than to lay out an ambitious rock work and then find that 

 one has neither the skill nor the inclination to grow the right plants 

 for it. 



The bank shown here was only partly devoted to growing al- 

 pines; next spring, however, the rocks will be extended, and the 

 annuals will not be there. Of course, there must be no formality 

 about anything in the rock garden, no grass edges or anything of 

 that sort. We do not need the stepping stones so useful in damp 

 England, but a gravel path is useful, and dwarf plants often seed 

 themselves and thrive in it. There is more moisture in the path 

 than anywhere else, as the water is sure to trickle down. So, even 

 though the path plants do occasionally get stepped upon, they are 

 often very handsome. 



The whole surface of the rock garden shovdd eventually be covered 

 with plants, but one must be cautious, as some undesirable kinds 

 are too free and are hard to get rid of. It is best, for a time at 

 least, to submit to the ugliness of bare ground than to let one's 

 precious pockets be over run with greedy, seedy plants. This 

 bare ground about rare plants should be covered with small stones 

 or broken rock to prevent evaporation, and they would also pre- 

 vent stagnant moisture in winter. The stones are not pretty, and 



