4 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 



overlap by three or four inches. Then,at the inner extremity 

 of the nearer block — the smaller — ^let him set a tiny pillar 

 Juniper. (He must proportion the size of this for himself, 

 of course, according to the size of his boulders.) Thus 

 the point of the V formed by the two stones will be two 

 inches or so to the tree's left. Then let him fill the fore- 

 ground with, say, Helxiyie Soleiroli, Veronica canescens, or 

 some tiny Alpine, with, perhaps, to left or right, nestling 

 under the rock, a tuft of Saxifraga burseriana Gloria. 

 And there — let him try the experiment — in a yard or so, 

 he will have a lovely, perfect picture, set up by his own 

 skill, at the cost of half-a-crown or so. And he will not 

 be the creator of that beauty, nor will the stones, nor I 

 that preach. The little shrub will be the keynote of the 

 whole. Oh, but pity fights in me with anger when people 

 lament to me, ' We can do so little because our garden is 

 so small. It is all vei-y well for you, with plenty of 

 room, but what can one do with a miserable little bed 

 like ours.?' fortunati, stui si bona norint ! But a 

 little garden, the littler the better, is your richest chance 

 of happiness and success ! Far, far happier, far far easier 

 to deal, as I have said, and say again, and shall shortly 

 shout if these complaints continue, to have a minute 

 compact plot of loveliness to scheme and deal with, than, 

 like hapless me, a great unwieldy tract of stone, necessary 

 for the multitude of my plants, but, thanks to walls and 

 houses and such jars, incapable of being lugged into any 

 real coherent picture of beautiful design and proportion. 



If I have not yet said much of deciduous shrubs, it is 

 because I cannot find much place for them in the rock- 

 garden. The rock-garden, it seems to me, imperiously 

 demands permanence of its inmates. Especially do you 

 require vegetation that will fill the dark long void of 

 winter. Therefore all deciduous shrubs are best banished, 

 in my view, to the outskirts and upper reaches of the 



