14 ROCK AND WATER GARDENS 



of ledges ; or pinnacles in which each stone is carefully 

 balanced on its predecessor, much after the fashion 

 of a child's erection of wooden bricks. Handfuls of 

 soil are crammed into any convenient crevice, and in 

 such unpromising quarters plants are expected to grow. 

 Naturally, as soon as the roots have pushed their 

 way through the ball of soil, they are in a barren air- 

 chamber, and during a dry summer half of them perish. 

 In the well-built rock garden the soil is rammed firmly 

 home, and no vacuum exists between adjacent stones. 

 Rocks which are hollowed out on the under side must 

 be sunk into loose soil, so that the cavity is completely 

 filled. Unless the work is made firm in all its stages, 

 the effect of frost and heavy rain will be to cause soil 

 subsidence, leaving innumerable air spaces. 



At this stage it is helpful to study rocks in their 

 natural positions. A tract of English moorland offers 

 a striking object lesson in this respect. On level ground, 

 smooth rocks, usually of fair size and round in shape, 

 rise a few inches above the ling and heather. Occasion- 

 ally we come upon a slight knoll or ridge, from which 

 a cluster of lichen-stained rocks thrust themselves boldly. 

 The higher the ground, the more rocks, and vice versa. 

 The fact is one which should be remembered in garden- 

 making of this description. Always use the smooth flat 

 stones for the lower levels, and be content with quite 

 a few : higher up the bank the plants will be smaller 

 and the boulders more conspicuous, whilst quite at the 

 top tufts of diminutive Saxifrage and Androsace will 

 cling to the sides of the roughest and most weathered 

 rocks. This is not an attempt to slavishly imitate 

 Nature's methods, but it is adopted because in no other 

 way do the various families of Alpine plants appear 

 to so great advantage. 



Stones should be laid in the earth with their broadest 

 sides downwards ; the bases should also be sunk in the 



