CHAPTER V 

 THE MORAINE 



IN Nature the Moraine is of an age only equalled by 

 mountain and glacier, at whose latter's feet it is 

 most usually found; a mingling of sand, debris and 

 rock of varying sizes and forms according to the 

 nature of the ground above, to which, of course, and 

 to the ever-melting snow and ice, they owe their being. 

 In gardens, the artificially arranged Moraine is of 

 necessity bereft of not a few of the chief characteristics 

 of that formed in Nature. The altitude, the melting 

 snow and ice of summer-time, with the eternally mois- 

 ture-saturated rocks around, these are the things we 

 realise to be absent, quite apart, possibly, from many 

 more whose absence is less conspicuous at first sight. 

 Then, too, we cannot overlook the great cooling effects 

 of the glacier itself, on all that is in Nature around, 

 and, while the Moraine is situated, as I believe the 

 majority are, in full sun, the near proximity of so much 

 ice must exert an influence of which we have but little 

 idea. Then, too, it is doubtful whether we shall ever 

 arrive at a true estimate of the value to plant life in 

 those regions of the constant supply of the ice-cold 

 water or its relative merits or demerits, compared with 

 that supplied in the artificially arranged Moraine in 

 bur gardens. These, perhaps, are problems the true 

 solutions of which will never be found, or, if dis- 

 covered, will prove to be impossible of imitation. 



The Lesson of the Moraine. — Nature everywhere 

 affords the observant student innumerable object les- 

 sons, and one of the chief lessons of the Moraine, as 

 it appears to the writer, is the indifference with which 

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