EOCK, ALPINE, FERN, AND WILD GAEDENING. 



77 



hig'her parts it is from twelve to eighteen inches 

 deeper. The next step was to introduce the stone so 

 as to provide the skeleton of the rockery. Some of 

 these stones were arranged so as to form fissures, 

 which are necessary for many plants. Others were 

 so placed as to appear to grow naturally out of the 

 surface, and provide many nestliug-nooks for those 

 plants which need such protection. Every stone was 

 fixed in such a, manner that it would conduct all 

 moisture falling upon it which it did not absorb to 

 plants growing at its base. Consequently no stones 

 were allowed to overhang the surface of stone or soil 

 lying at a lower level — a common error, which has 

 led to the destruction of many a valuable gem. 

 A^Tierever possible, the stones were placed so as to 

 form pockets, edged on all sides with stone, which 

 wo have found very conducive to the health of most 

 plants, inasmuch as the roots have been kept cool by 

 the moisture held by the stones. Moreover, when- 

 ever a plant has grown too big for its pocket, we have 

 found it easy to lift it bodily from the pocket, divide 

 it, and re-plant so much of it in its former home as 

 we found suitable. These pockets have another ad- 

 vantage : -when a special compost is needed for a plant, 

 -we simply remove the ordinary soil from a pocket, 

 fiU it with the required compost, and the plant is 

 thus supplied to its liking at the least possible cost. 

 This rockery, Alpine border, or, as old Maund, 

 in his "Botanic Garden," suggests it should be 

 called, " Lapideum," has now for yeare past been 

 a source of great interest and pleasure to ourselves 

 and meiny friends, not a few of whom have been led 

 to imitate it in their own gardens. From January to 

 December it always affords some objects of interest 

 to tempt one into the garden, and there cannot be a 

 doubt as to the ever-fresh pleasure it yields in those 

 portions of the year when flowers in the ordinarj- 

 borders are scarcely to be seen. Bulbs in great 

 variety have been freely planted among the other 

 plants, and for such as are scarce, the plan adopted 

 of setting apart pockets for them has been found to 

 answer admirably. They are secured from the spade 

 of the gardener, and come up year after year with 

 fresh and often increased vigour. From March to 

 July this rock border is at its best; the plants in 

 bloom are innumerable, and their charms are most 

 diversified in character ; a single genus even, such as 

 the Saxifrages, for instance, jaelds foliage and flowers 

 greatly differing from each other in appeanmce. but 

 all alike in being beautiful. 



Iiarge Eockeries.— Wlere sufficient space is 

 available for, and it is desired to form, rockeries on a 

 larger scale than would be admissible in ordinary- 

 sized gardens, for which the plan just described is 

 chiefly intended, much bolder efltectscanbe obtained, 



and more ambitious imitations of rock scenery may 

 be prudently and successfully attempted. One of 

 the most perfect and instructive rockeries of this 

 class is at York, and constitutes an object of ever- 

 increasing attraction to visitors to that city. The 

 origin of this rockery seems to have been due to what 

 may be called an accidental circumstance, as may be 

 gathered from the following description: — "About 

 thirty years since, there resided in the county of 

 York a young man of delicate health, but with an 

 extremely active and observant mind. It was about 

 the year 1851 that he, in company with some rela- 

 tives, visited Norway, with the hope that the wild 

 scenery and the Norwegian mountain air would be 

 the means of restoring his health. It was while on 

 this visit, I 'believe, and also in rambling over our 

 Cumberland and Welsh mountains, that he acquired 

 a real and lasting love for Alpine flowers. On his 

 return home the thought occurred to him, ' Why 

 cannot we, by constructing rock- work, bring as it were 

 the mountains (in miniature) into our gardens ? We 

 should then, I feel persuaded, be able to cultivate 

 these beautiful Alpine flowers, by being able to place 

 them in similar positions to those in which they are 

 foimd in their native homes.' This idea he carried 

 out with great artistic, but, at the same time, a 

 pleasing natural taste. The rock- work completed, 

 importations of plants were then made from various 

 parts of Em-ope, which were planted and watched 

 with loving interest and care." 



Another rockery on a grand scale is at Darley 

 Dale, in Derbyshire, where Sir Joseph Whitworth 

 has utilised some stone - quarries near to his 

 mansion so artistically as now to present the ap- 

 pearance of natural picturesque rockeries of 

 great extent, where bewildering numbers of plants 

 have been so suitably disposed as to give the 

 visitor the impression that he is gazing on a piece 

 of Nature's daintiest handiwork. There are, it is 

 needless to say, numberless other instances of fine 

 rockeries in many public gardens, and in the private 

 grounds of the nobility and gentry in all parts of 

 the kingdom. The rockery at Kew is an instance 

 of a most successful kind, accessible to e\ery one, 

 which may be studied with advantage by all; so, 

 too, is the small but weU-fumished rockery near the 

 large vinery in the gardens of the Eoyal Horticul- 

 tural Society at Chiswick, on which Mr. Barron 

 skilfully grows an immense variety of most in- 

 teresting Alpines, and of which a portion is shown 

 in the coloured plate. 



In districts where natural rocks, by a judicious 

 removal of the surface soU, can be made use of 

 in foi-ming rockeries, some very tine effects may 

 often be obtained at a trifling outlay, where a 

 man of con-ect taste has thvi superintendence of 



