The Small Rock-Garden. 135 
The general rule for the building up of any bed 
or portion of a bed, whatever its form, may be 
stated thus: Every mound, or portion of a mound, 
should be terraced in rising stages towards the 
place of its greatest mass. 
The planning of the rockery and the disposition 
of its rockwork should always be kept simple. 
The contour-lines in a good map of hilly country 
will suggest suitable arrangements ; miniature pre- 
cipices, prolonged escarpments, fissured pavements, 
isolated summits and gentle slopes on the top, 
shallow V-shaped gullies running into the sides, 
should all have a place. 
Special care should be taken to avoid gaps and 
clefts between adjacent stones through which the 
rain can wash down soil from above ; such openings 
may be stopped with small stones, rough peat, or 
clay. 
The height of the mounds above the general 
ground-level, should not on the whole be greater 
in proportion to the breadth than from 3ft. to 34ft. 
in 15ft. 
Should it be desired to obtain greater apparent 
height in any portion, this may be gained with 
good effect by excavation of the pathway there, 
using large stones as a basement for the sides. 
The case of mounds abutting on a retaining 
wall is exceptional for the increase in proportion 
of height to breadth which it permits, but even in 
this instance the rule above given should not be 
unduly or recklessly disregarded. 
It is well to insert a fair number of good-sized 
