‘The Small Rock-Garden. 137 
It is only small rockeries, or those which are to 
remain untouched for a long time, that need to be 
made of such good soil throughout. In other cases 
it is sufficient to provide a covering of good soil to 
a depth of from rift. to 14ft. only, over a core of 
inferior and almost indifferent material, provided it 
is loam and well drained. The smaller the depth 
of good soil, the better must be its quality. It is 
better to use a poorer quality of loam in making 
the rockery itself, reserving really good and even 
rich loam for use in planting, if this is then used 
along with plenty of grit and sand or other diluting 
material. The same principle applies to the leaf- 
mould or peat used. 
In all these cases the better soil assists in 
stimulating initial growth, and the establishment of 
the plant in a vigorous state in its new quarters, 
while the limited supply prevents too rank growth, 
and hence retarded or scanty flowering. In making 
the rockery, the rougher material should be thrown 
in at the bottom, the top 14ft. being carefully pre- 
pared by passage through a sieve with jin. mesh, 
An abundance of broken-up chips and fragments of 
grit should be mixed, during the progress of the 
work, with the soil throughout ; the pieces, at first 
large, decreasing in size, but increasing in number 
with decrease of depth. In some bed or part of a 
bed the loam should be replaced by peat, together 
with a larger proportion of sand; while another 
portion should form a sand-bed, consisting in one 
place of pure sand alone and, for the rest, of half 
sand and half leaf-mould, the whole being, in all 
