76 ALPINE FLOWERS AND ROCK GARDENS. 



Can the Alpine gardener, striving to grasp the prin- 

 ciple of this class of rockery, imagine his mound to 

 consist of a series of terraces or platforms instead of a 

 regular slope ? Can he see these terraces irregularly 

 faced and floored with fiattish stones ? Can he imagine 

 plants grouped in colonies on the terraces and sprawling 

 over the precipitous or sharply sloped faces ? If so, 

 he may proceed to practical work with every confidence. 



He will require more space than is needed for a 

 mere mound, but it is not necessary to lay out suffi- 

 cient ground to allow of the top terrace being above 

 the level of the eye, because a colony of Heaths or a 

 cluster of small Pines may be planted there. The 

 width of the terraces may vary with the taste of the 

 worker, but it is not necessary to have a greater average 

 width than two feet. The height may range from a 

 foot to eighteen inches. 



An interesting and effective plan of building rockwork 

 is to form a series of what I may term bays in a large 

 mound. That is to say, instead of having a plain 

 rock-bed on the one hand, or a terraced rockery on the 

 other, form a mound with a series of deep indentations. 

 The edges of the bays will form ridges, and may be 

 set with stones, in the interstices of which plants will 

 be put. A fairly large group or colony of some favourite 

 plant can be planted in the widest part of the bay, and 

 groups of stones, with other plants between, may be 

 set at the back. 



Always an attractive way of growing Alpine plants, 

 this plan lends itself admirably to a combination 

 of mountain and bog plants. It is to be particularly 



