HARDY PLANTS IN THE ROCK-GARDEN, ETC. 21 



vide a suitable soil and position for growing- and exhibiting the beauties 

 of tiny and interesting 1 plants that in a wild state live in very 

 rocky and stony places, seeking a subsistence where fat and leafy 

 vegetation [would have no chance; and of those beautiful moun- 

 taineers that grow away green and bright far above the limit of 

 shrubby and herbaceous vegetation, where the fierce blast and bitter 

 cold prevent them raising their tiny heads more than an inch or so 

 from mother earth. Now such situations can of course only be 

 imitated on a very lilliputian scale indeed in gardens, but the con- 

 ditions in which the plants delight may be produced to perfection 

 even in the suburban or the town garden ; and they must be brought 

 about by first demolishing all the notions about rockwork which 

 have given birth to those half-wall, half-heap- of- rubbish abortions so 

 prevalent in gardens. 



Every person interested in rockwork, or alpine plants, should 

 understand that, as a rule, high-pointed and loosely-thrown-together 

 masses of rockwork with large surfaces exposed to evaporation, are 

 much inferior to broad and less ambitious ones with comparatively 

 slight exposure at the sides. In piling up loose mounds and almost 

 wall-like banks of stone, we, instead of imitating the conditions 

 in which plants are found in high, moist, and cool regions, simply 

 make provision for drying winds quickly killing all the plants 

 worth preserving on our " rockwork." A little rockery, four or five 

 feet high and ten feet broad, is incomparably better for growing 

 choice plants than one ten feet high and ten feet broad, and so on in 

 proportion. And it should be distinctly borne in mind that the great 

 majority of alpine plants will thrive much better on the level ground 

 in ordinary sandy loam, than on the ugly banks on which they have 

 been hitherto arranged. 



This subject is, however, so extensive and interesting that space 

 forbids its being fully dealt with here. In my " Alpine Flowers," 

 everything in connexion with the subject wil] be found fully treated 

 of and illustrated by numerous engravings. 



HARDY FLOWERS NATURALIZED. Many beautiful hardy plants 

 besides the natives of our own country will thrive better and look 

 better running wild in shrubberies, copses, and half- wild places than 

 in gardens ; and indeed, many perennials are only fitted for use in 

 this way. I know of nothing more interesting than selecting and 

 planting various sorts of those suitable to whatever rough spots may 

 happen to be available. This subject is however fully discussed in 



