64 breck's new book of flowers. 



these her treasures inhabiting and flourishing in the cracks 

 of her wild mountain scenery, making it as interesting on 

 a near approach, as it is astonishing at a distance. 



Near Boston there are several glens, on a small scale, 

 where the naked rock is beautifully ornamented by the 

 Columbine, the Thalictrum, (Meadow-rue) the Violet, 

 ferns and many other plants of great interest ; they always 

 appear to me more captivating in these their natural situa- 

 tions than when formally planted in the parterre. 



In Europe, few gardens are considered complete with- 

 out their compartment of rock work ; and even where 

 the spot is of the smallest size, a little piece of this device 

 is frequently seen, filling up and concealing an ugly cor- 

 ner ; nay, in the immediate vicinity of large towns where 

 the kitchens occupy the places of the cellars in this coun- 

 try, the way down is sometimes metamorphosed into a 

 rocky glen where Polypodiums, Aspleniums and other 

 ferns flourish — one friend of mine near London has a 

 2>lace of this kind, where there is a collection of more 

 than two hundred varieties of fern, many of them natives 

 of this country, he writes to me — ' This I have turned 

 into a rocky glen, planted all over with every variety of 

 fern I could collect, and there are about 200 of them, in 

 the several interstices between one piece of rock work 

 and another, all growing beautifully, and presenting a 

 singular and interesting contrast to the other surround- 

 ing species of vegetation. I am quite sure that if any 

 horticulturist who has the least feeling for the beauty of 

 form were to see it, he would not be long without taking 

 the hint ; the efiect surpasses much what I expected.' 



The nurserymen in the vicinity of London, drive a con- 

 siderable trade in these rock plants, as they are called, 

 and generally keep them in small pots in appropriate 

 mould, so that they may T)e purchased and transplanted 

 at any time of the year ; so great indeed has been, and I 



