SHRUBS FOR THE ROCK GARDEN. 277 



Just as a person who has made up an herbaceous 

 border with shrubs will always wish to use them in 

 future, so one who introduces them among stones in a 

 rock garden learns to appreciate their value so much as 

 to. extend their use. We have learned a good deal 

 from the Japanese in this matter. They make great 

 use of shrubs in their designs. A Japanese gardener 

 who had a small area to furnish would not fill it with a 

 mound of soil stuck over with stones like currants in a 

 pudding. He would contrive to get in a bridge, a 

 temple, and some water in addition to shrubs and rocks. 

 Judging by some specimens of Japanese garden art 

 displayed in England we need feel no impulse to imitate 

 it, but we may learn one valuable lesson from it, and 

 that is that variety is possible even in a small garden, 

 and that we should not tie ourselves to one stiff feature. 



We might distinguish between a rockery and a rock 

 garden by looking on the former as one item only, 

 built up above the ground level with stones and soil; 

 and on the latter as a series of items — rock-work, pool, 

 bog, shrubs — ^more or less closely connected. But it is 

 a very small " stone-pie ** example of rockwork that 

 does not admit of a few shrubs. They could be set 

 on the ridge, and in small groups near the ends. 

 Especially could they be brought into effective use 

 where the rockery was something more than a plain 

 body of stones and soil, and built in bays. There 

 the crest of the horn of each crescent would form a 

 suitable site for small shrubs, as one sees the scarp of 

 a hill hung with pines. A colony of shrubs on the top 

 would strengthen the natural effect thus aimed at. 



