xxviii INTRODUCTION 



are usually incomprehensible whims to them. They 

 can take a pride in a regiment of calceolarias, but not 

 in a plant that dies if you pull it up by mistake for a 

 weed and makes no show even when it thrives. There 

 is some danger that rock gardens will become fashion- 

 able; and already you will sometimes find strange ac- 

 cumulations of stone in pretentious gardens which 

 are, no doubt, meant to be rock gardens. Indeed, 

 there is a story of a millionaire who built a rock gar- 

 den all of concrete blocks so well fixed together that 

 there was no room at all for plants to grow between 

 them. But, if rock gardening does become fashion- 

 able, it is not likely to remain so for long. A rock 

 garden cannot be bought outright, like a diamond 

 necklace, and kept without further trouble. It is 

 nothing unless its owner loves it and understands it; 

 but, if he does, then he can get as much pleasure out 

 of it as out of any amusement provided by the bounty 

 of nature and the ingenuity of man. 



This difficulty of the rock garden is only an extreme 

 instance of the difficulties that must be always crop- 

 ping up for every gardener who loves his plants and 

 seeks to provide them with natural conditions, and 

 who also aims at a formal beauty of design. At every 

 point he will have to make some kind of sacrifice or 

 compromise. But that is no reason why he should 

 forgo formal beauty altogether. It is rather a reason 

 why he should try to understand its principles clearly, 

 so that he may know what is the best sacrifice or com- 

 promise to make in each particular case. Unless he 



