CHAPTER 11. 



The Best Stones and Soil. 



The cultivation of Alpine plants is, we have agreed, j 

 a delightful form of gardening. By its means we are ^ 

 able to add a new and extremely beautiful feature to I 

 a home. Let those who are beginning to experience i 

 the very human weakness of getting tired of the house 

 they live in without being able to give a good reason ; 

 why, add a rock garden to its surroundings, and their | 

 discontent will disappear immediately. The place will 

 enjoy a new lease of favour. But it is useless to make 

 pretences. A rockery cannot be established as simply 

 as a bed of carrots. A man cannot buy a few penny 

 packets of seed, scratch about for an hour with a rake, 

 and see a complete Alpine garden arise. 



It is obvious that to form a rock garden we must 

 have stones, or something to serve as a substitute for 

 them. Rock is not always easy to get, or suitable 

 substitutes easy to find. This fact has more than once 

 caused a sHght hankering after a rockery to develop 

 into a consuming passion for one. When a man says 

 he thinks that he would rather like a rockery, and is 

 told that he cannot have one because there is nothing 

 to make it with, he generally becomes possessed with 

 an almost overwhelming desire for a rockery. An 



