12 8 BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS 



to spare, can adopt, is to have a small one. It is not large 

 rockeries alone which yield pleasure. 



Having made a concession to conscience by pointing out cer- 

 tain facts which must be taken into consideration by those who 

 contemplate establishing a rockery, the writers gladly turn to the 

 more agreeable task of indicating some of the special pleasures 

 and advantages of rockery flowers. In the first place, let us pay 

 a tribute to their intrinsic beauty. Among Alpine plants we find 

 some of the most exquisite of all floral gems. Many are evergreens, 

 or, to coin a word, " ever-silvers," since 



A 



their leaves are grey or white. There 

 is great diversity of habit and foliage 

 among them. The flowers are of the 

 most delicate and refined beauty. Their 

 colours are fresh, clear, and sparkling. 

 Then there is the prolonged period of 

 beauty. Some of the plants come into 

 bloom in the winter. 



Many in fact, the majority flower 

 in spring. There are plants which 

 flower in summer, and others which 

 bloom in autumn. Thus our gardening interest is not allowed 

 to lie dormant during any part of the year. It is being con- 

 stantly stimulated. We are led on from day to day, from week 

 to week, from month to month, by the never-ending succession 

 of charming flowers. The well-managed rockery is rarely bare of 

 flowers, and it is never absolutely without colour, either of leaf 

 or bloom. 



Over and above these considerations there is what is spoken 

 of, somewhat indefinitely, perhaps, as " interest." Rock plants are 

 deeply, intensely " interesting." They attract our thoughts, engage 

 our affections, stimulate our minds. We cannot treat them cava- 

 lierly. If we study them at all we become absorbed in them. All 



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CONSTRUCTION OF ROCKERIES 



Ground-plan of rockery against a wall. A, 

 wall; B, stones; C, soil. D shows 

 second layer of stones coming irregu- 

 larly between the first laid down. 



