20 Crevice and Fissure Treatment 



Moreover, such rocks rarely possess planting value, 

 and are calculated to remain bare for all time. 



Fissure and Crevice. — In the arrangement or disposi- 

 tion of the rocks I regard these as of the highest im- 

 portance, since they form, or should form, a setting — 

 a fitting setting — for the choicest jewels found in 

 Nature. It is into these that we can introduce, with 

 every hope of success, the inlaid jewellery of an alpine 

 slope, and, by endowing them with the best, make them 

 appear a part of Nature's own. To the true rock- 

 builder the fissure or crevice is far more precious than 

 the larger planting areas, for in them he sees the hope 

 of success for not a few of the sweetest of Nature's 

 children, denizens of the higher rocks and secluded 

 places, which are doomed to failure in ampler soil areas 

 lower down. That they require and must have their 

 own special fare there is no doubt; hence the rock- 

 builder must see to it that every fissure is filled as the 

 work proceeds ; each to form a larder stored with the 

 choicest morsels, grit, rocky debris, and soil after its 

 own kind. Here, in touch with cool absorbent rock, 

 quite removed from the soil and soil-damp so fatal in 

 lowland gardens to high alpine vegetation, fed and 

 nourished imperceptibly by dews and rains, with per- 

 fect drainage, and root fibres a yard or so away, many 

 of these delightful plants will be as safe as the hills 

 themselves. 



