34 ALPINE FLOWERS [PART I. 



ing, it would be better to put in a subsoil of spongy peat, so as 

 to retain moisture. As to soil, rock-plants are found in all sorts, 

 but a turfy loam, with plenty of river sand added, will be found 

 to suit a greater number of kinds than any other. If not 

 naturally free and open, it should be so made by the addition of 

 leaf-mould, cocoa-nut fibre, or, failing these, peat. 



With the soil should be mixed the smallest and least useful 

 stones and debris among those collected for the work, so that the 

 plants to adorn the spot may send down their roots through 

 the mixture of earth and stone. When this is well and firmly 

 done, the larger stones may be placed half in the earth as a 

 . rule, and on their broadest side, so that the mass, when com- 

 pleted, may be perfectly firm. Have nothing to do with tree- 

 roots or stumps in work of this kind ; they crumble away, and 

 are at best a nuisance and a disfigurement in a garden. The 

 intervening spaces may then be filled up, half with the compost 

 and half with the stony matter, and the smaller blocks placed 

 in position the whole being made as diversified as may seem 

 desirable, but without much show of " rock." When finished, it 

 should look like a bit of rocky ground, and in no way resemble 

 the " rockwork " of books and most gardens. Two or three feet 

 will, as a rule, be high enough for the highest stones. In some 

 of our public and private gardens want of means is given as an 

 excuse for the presence of the hideous masses of rockwork that 

 disfigure them. The plan here recommended is as much less 

 expensive than these, as it is less offensive ! 



ROCK AND ALPINE FLOWERS IN BORDERS AND BEDS. 



The most uninviting surfaces often afford a home to various 

 forms of plant life : pavements, the stone roofs of old buildings, 

 the stems and branches of trees, the faces of inaccessible rocks, 

 and ruins, are all frequently adorned with ferns and wild 

 flowers, and we are far from the end of simple ways of growing 

 our Alpine favourites. The mixed-border system rightly done 

 enables us to cultivate, with little trouble, many of the more 

 vigorous alpine plants as edgings and carpets beneath the 

 taller and more stately plants : dwarf Hairbells, Pinks, Phlox, 



