FORMALITY FATAL 23 



One may often find the rugged bark of the cork- 

 tree used not ineffectively, in the greenhouse and 

 elsewhere, but it would not long stand outdoor 

 service, and is therefore, in any case, unsuited to 

 our present need, even if we could by closing our 

 eyes very much, and indulging in any amount of 

 make-believe, come round to the idea that cork and 

 rock were practically the same thing. A corkery 

 may do very well for those who can do no better, 

 but to those who have ambitions beyond a green- 

 house shelf, or a flower-box on the window-sill, 

 it does not suffice. 



There should be a considerable variation in the 

 sizes of the stones anything like uniformity of 

 bulk is apt to give a feeling of formality that 

 is destructive of the picturesque. The stones, too, 

 should not be too rounded in character, like beach 

 boulders, but should possess a certain quaint 

 angularity of form, the latter being also much more 

 useful practically, as in the resulting crevices we 

 may plant many graceful little things, like the ivy- 

 leaved toadflax, that could find no home on the 

 smooth surface of an ovoid block. In most things 

 there is that valuable institution, the happy medium, 

 to be reckoned with, and it is as much to be studied 

 here as in any other of the affairs of life ; so one 

 must not rush to the opposite extreme, eschewing 

 boulders and landing in an effect suggestive of a 

 cemetery, where smashed-up hearthstones seem 

 to have supplied the raw material. 



