84 ALPINE FLOWERS AND ROCK GARDENS. 



All stone is cheap at the quarries, but the freight 

 may double or quadruple the first cost. 



There is one advantage in bu3dng stone locally — 

 a personal inspection can be made, and influence 

 exercised to get it of a suitable size and shape. It is 

 only in very large constructions that heavy blocks 

 are wanted, and when ambitious work is being done 

 it will be wise to employ experts to carry it out. The 

 average rock gardener should work with rather small 

 stones. In " feeUng the way," it is convenient to 

 have stones that can be handled easily, because then 

 change after change can be made, if necessary, until 

 just the right effect is secured. With stones exceed- 

 ing a quarter of a hundredweight much shifting makes 

 the task very laborious and fatiguing. It will prob- 

 ably be found that good effects can be secured with 

 stones weighing less than half this, especially if they run 

 flattish, and as the work goes on there will be a brisk 

 demand for stones weighing only a few pounds each. 



The rounder the rock runs the less suitable it will 

 be in the main. Rounded stones are not easy to 

 make firm. Rectangular blocks, on the other hand, 

 can be bedded securely with very little trouble, and 

 generally speaking the flatter the stone is the more 

 readily it fits in with the scheme of work. It is not 

 suggested that paving-stone shape is the ideal. 

 Dressed stone would look too stiff. It is merely 

 hinted that stone which tends to flatness rather than 

 roundness is the most suitable. 



When rockwork is being built over water, some of 

 the stones may be fitted so that they overhang the 



