CASSELL'S POPULAE GARDENING. 



resem'bling Brobdignagian mole-hills, are covered 

 with a series of rooky pockets, as nearly as may be 

 of one uniform size, shape, and character. These 

 hideous pockets, as a rule, are far more conspicuous 

 than the plants that are supposed to fill them. In' 

 many examples they are far too shallow ; in others 

 much too large for their occupants. Not a few of 

 these rockeries haunt our memory as we write — 

 they look as if a shower of slaty pieces of rock or 

 sandstone had fallen down on the semi-even ground- 

 line of the rockery, and had arranged themselves into 

 squares of equal or unequal sides nearly all over the 

 area occupied. Seen from a distance, the rock- work 

 somewhat resembles the worked-out ground-line of 

 a worn-out quarry. Approach nearer, to see the 

 plants, if any, and all the hideous deformity of the 

 ■ pocket system run to seed becomes painfully manifest. 



A perfect rockery, be it large or small, should 

 more resemble the sides than the floor of a quarry, 

 exhausted or otherwise. The rocks should rise 

 boldly— project here, recede there, and in places 

 boldly assert themselves. For though the chief use 

 of artificial rookeries is to afford picturesque-growing 

 sites for beautiful plants and flowers, yet the rooky 

 character of the base should be more prominently 

 apparent here and there. The attempt to utilise 

 each foot or yard of space, and to cover the whole of 

 the rocks with flowers or foliage, is as great a . 

 mistake as the opposite one of having ten times more 

 rock than vegetable covering. 



Regularity of form and of clothing is the ruin of 

 the majority of artificial rockeries. Nature, by her 

 various tiltings, upheavals, and depressions, varies to 

 ' infinity the rocky foundations of the earth. And 

 one of the chief charms of artificial rockeries con- 

 sists in choosing for our imitation specimens of 

 her most erratic performances. And yet where any 

 particular strata is chosen for imitation, in most 

 cases sufficient variety may be obtained in the 

 dips or tiltings of that particular formation, with- 

 out travelling far beyond it. But of course this is 

 more applicable to rookeries of great extent, and 

 such as are seldom attempted in this country. 



Most of our garden rockeries are a mixed lot, 

 formed of all sorts of odds and ends that can be col- 

 lected in the demesne or neighbourhood. "Where 

 these are not available, spar, iron clinkers, slag, 

 spoilt brick, fused pottery, cement, and various 

 compositions are employed. As a rule, the greatest 

 variety of rocky substances will be found in the 

 smallest rockery, and the absurd mixture of stone, 

 spoilt brick, flints, spar, refuse of glass works, old 

 gas retorts, clinkers, suffices to rob such rockeries of 

 any pretence to propriety or artistic taste. 



Many of the evils arising from the use of excessive 

 Tariety of materials in rock-work may be hidden or 



mitigated by the simple expedient of coating the 

 whole over with Portland cement, after being placed 

 in position. This converts the whole into rock of 

 one colour and character, and effectually hides up 

 the commonplace character of the materials em- 

 ployed. 



But rock- work of artistic and imposing character 

 may be formed without any hard materials at all. 

 The base of the rockery may be formed of earth 

 only, and these earthy masses cased over on the spot 

 with cement. This can be moulded into any desired 

 form, and pinnacles and stalactites worked in or on 

 for effect where desired. It can also be faced, just 

 before setting, with smashed spar or ground stone, 

 of any desired sort or colour. How much can be 

 very well done in this way with a very slender ex- 

 penditure of time and money, cannot be known 

 without making trial of the system. 



This mode of converting mere earth into rocks, 

 large or otherwise, at will, needs considerable know- 

 ledge and experience. But these acquired, it is 

 comparatively easy, and becomes one of the most 

 fascinating of all horticultural pursuits. The rocks 

 grow up, as it were, under the hand of the master, 

 and are fashioned into endless varieties of form and 

 style, as he lists. 



Solidity. — This is of especial importance: the 

 earth should be moulded into the desired shape several 

 months or a year before the rocks are fashioned on 

 its surface. The necessity of great solidity of base 

 is of course apparent, and notwithstanding all that 

 may be done by ramming and treading, time, after 

 all, is the great consolidator. Earth-banks, hills, 

 and dales — even overhanging ledges and rugged 

 ravines — wiU stiffen into permanent shape more 

 thoroughly under a year's shine and shower, frost 

 and thaw, than by any possible amount of mechani- 

 cal pressure in their making or afterwards. Care- 

 fully made and moulded, and left so for a year to 

 settle, the earth will seldom subside much after- 

 wards ; and should it slightly give waj', most of the 

 artificial rocks of some two inches or more thick 

 will have strength sufficient to stand alone. 



Other advantages arise from waiting, besides the 

 gain of solidity. The surfaces of the mounds will 

 thus be mellowed into greater sweetness and enriched 

 into a higher fertility. It is almost impossible to 

 over-estimate the importance of this ; for the surface 

 that forms the bases of our rocks also furnishes the 

 plants with deep, rich, and amply sufficient root-runs. 

 For it must be observed that, as a rule, the pockets 

 made in the rocks are bottomless ; at all events, they 

 are not bottomed with rooks, but with soil of such 

 quality as shall sustain the vigour and fully develop 

 the beauty of the plants grown on or beside the rocks. 



