14 Bays and Recesses 



a failure. It would surprise one, indeed, if they were 

 anything else. At all times and upon all occasions air 

 and wind are playing an antagonistic part, and the 

 whole idea is so opposed to Nature that the error 

 should be obvious at a glance. In all good rock gar- 

 dens only the surface should be exposed, not the foot- 

 ing-courses and the entire area of the superstructure to 

 boot. Nature exposes but the superficial surface of 

 her rock garden; millions of tons of rock and earth 

 protecting it meanwhile. Hence, let me say, with all 

 the emphasis at my command, that the elevated all- 

 out-of-ground rockery without a protecting bank of 

 earth would be the greatest of all fundamental errors, 

 and, foredoomed to failure as it undoubtedly would be, 

 should never be attempted — never, indeed, thought of, 

 much less countenanced. 



In the matter of outline, and where guiding pegs are 

 a necessity, as they not infrequently are, the first essen- 

 tial is informality. Bays, recesses, prominences are 

 also essential to the accommodating of the greatest 

 variety of plants by reason of the diverse aspects they 

 present. These are important, no matter what the size 

 of the erection. Wherg a path is contemplated it should 

 take the form of a meandering streamlet, and never 

 formally curved or straight as by line or compass-vbut 

 moulded and fashioned in Nature's own way. A rock 

 garden should never be in the nature of a vista, hence, 

 too much of such a path should not be seen from any 

 one point — the unseen parts are as pastures new. 



Drainage. — Here, too, the operator vnll have to be 

 guided entirely by circumstances, though perfect 

 drainage is an absolutely essential item. Each district, 

 each soil, has its own peculiarities, so that one can only 

 be certain as to fundamental principles — guiding lines 

 as it were, no one set of conditions sufficing for all. To 

 the vast majority of alpine plants perfect drainage is 

 of the highest importance, a fact that should be ever 

 present in the mind of the rock builder. It may be 

 that in the lie of the land this question of drainage is 



