PART I.] 



CULTURAL 



95 



WHAT TO AVOID. 



In the selection of a few illustrations showing with what 

 deplorable results rock work is generally made, my first inten- 

 tion was to have had them all engraved from drawings taken 

 in various gardens, public and private ; but as this course might 

 have proved an invidious one, I have preferred to take most of 

 them from our best books on Horticulture the works of 

 authorities like Loudon, Macintosh, and others, and that, if 

 such ridiculous objects occur in 

 books of repute, they must be yet 

 more absurd in many gardens. 



The first example is copied 

 from the frontispiece of a small 

 book on alpine plants, published 

 not many years ago. Growing 

 naturally on the high mountains, 

 unveiled from the sun by wood or 

 copse, alpine plants are grouped 

 here beneath a weeping tree a 

 position in which they could not 

 attain anything like their native 

 vigour, or do otherwise than lead 

 a sickly existence. 



One form which " rockwork " is made to assume is that of 

 a rustic arch ; and the following illustration, from Loudon, 

 is less hideous than many that may be 

 seen about London. Frequently they 

 are formed of spoiled clinkers, but even 

 if composed of good stone, they are 

 useless for the growth of plants. How 

 many rock Pinks or Primroses would 

 find a home on such a structure, set 

 in a part of the Alps favourable to 

 vegetation? Probably not one, and what to Avoid, 



should a few establish themselves on Rustic Arch (after London). 



What to Avoid. 

 Frontispiece of a book on Alpine Plants 



