PART I.] 



CULTURAL 



point upwards (fig. c) not downwards. It will easily be seen 

 that the tendency of the mixed soil, both as a whole and in each 



(A) Right. 



(B) Wrong. 



(C) A properly formed 

 large vertical fissure. 



of its subdivided parts, is to become more and more compressed 

 by its own weight and by the action of rain." 



In the construction and planting of every kind of rock- 

 garden, it should be remembered that every surface may and 

 should be embellished with beautiful plants. Not alone on 

 rocks or slopes, or favourable ledges or chinks, or miniature 

 valleys, should we see this kind of plant -life. Numbers of rare 

 mountain species will thrive 

 on the less trodden parts of 

 footways ; others, like the 

 two-flowered Violet, seem 

 to thrive best of all in the 

 fissures between rude steps 

 of the rockwork; many dwarf 

 succulents delight in gravel 

 and the hardest soil, and 

 various other plants will 

 run free in among low shrubs 

 near the rock-garden. 



As a rule, much more 

 vegetation than rocks should 

 be seen. Where vast regions 



are inhabited by alpine plants, acres of crags, with a stain 

 of flowers here and there, are attractive parts of the picture ; 



