THE ROCK GARDEN 125 



to form little shelters or caves and chinks into 

 which plants will cuddle themselves according to 

 their nature in the most bewitching way. In early 

 days a rockery of the hillock form was sometimes 

 parcelled out, regardless of appearance, into little 

 square pens surrounded by slabs of half-sunk 

 stone. It answered admirably for the Alpines. 

 They settled themselves snugly into their separate 

 compartments, and hugely enjoyed the protection 

 of the sheets of glass with which it was quite 

 easy to shield them from the fatal damp of our 

 English winter when it arrived. But the effect ! 

 It suggested nothing so much as an overcrowded 

 cemetery, and the mimic tombstones failed to carry 

 conviction even to the least aesthetic of Alpine 

 growers. The genus " gardener " may be roughly 

 divided into lovers of plants and lovers of pictorial 

 effect; and happy is he who can reconcile the 

 opposing loves. 



The sunk rock garden, with a broad pathway 

 running through it, is a more ambitious structure, 

 and is often built with facing blocks of sand or 

 limestone according to natural stratification, with 

 bays and hollows for the accommodation of plants 

 of varied requirements. A rock garden somewhat 

 of this character is well known to the frequenters 

 of Kew. 



Happy are they who in planning a rock garden 

 can combine both rock and water. An open mea- 

 dow with a tinkling brook running through it is 

 as favourable a site as could well be desired, for 

 it may be transformed, by efficient generalship and 

 adequate material, into an ideal spot. Ideal, too, 



