Proportion in Plantin o" 
it. By skilful planting this can be so arranged that 
it will not be obtrusively visible from any other portion 
of the grounds, and will, moreover, afford a happy 
home for many charming little alpine plants, both for 
dry and sunny or low-lying damp situations. There 
are no piled up banks of stone therein, and, indeed, 
the quantity of stone used should be reduced to a 
minimum, but the rock that is used should possess 
something that is attractive and picturesque in itself. 
I do not mean by this that it should be brilliantly 
coloured, or that white spar, or marble, is suitable, 
but that it should be natural rock, that shows signs of 
Nature’s work thereon in the form of mossy growth, 
crevices, and crannies that have been produced by 
weather action. Then the plants must be selected with 
due regard to the size of the undertaking. If it is 
very small only the tiniest of alpine plants and shrubs 
should be used. There must, indeed, be throughout 
a sense of proportion. The plants, however, should 
all be of the class that are associated with rocky land. 
In commencing these remarks on the rock garden I 
said there were two distinct types ; as a matter of fact 
the second I am going to describe hardly answers that 
description, as it is merely a certain area devoted to 
the cultivation of alpine or rock plants. That is to 
say, that it aims at being nothing more than a collec- 
tion of alpine plants in which such stone as is used plays 
quite a secondary part. In the construction of the ideal 
rock garden the stone is just as important a factor as 
the plants, and it is the two combined that form the 
pigments wherewith to paint the picture. In this 
cultivator’s garden stone is hardly necessary at all 
7 
