The Rock Garden 



it looked as if made yesterday ; nature and time 

 had done all they could to soften its hardness and 

 to clothe its bare surfaces, but the gardener was 

 able to defy them. So here is another rule — to 

 avoid everything that suggests artifice, or even to 

 suggest man's labour. Of course there must be 

 artifice and there must be human labour, but they 

 should be kept out of sight as much as possible. 



There is another form of the rock garden which 

 must be noticed ; for it is very scientific and very 

 ugly. This is the pocketed garden, which was first 

 started by Mr M'Nab at the Edinburgh Botanic 

 Gardens about thirty years ago. It consists of a 

 collection of squares placed side by side, and one 

 above the other, the sides of the squares being 

 formed of thin flat stones, of which two-thirds at 

 least are below the surface of the soil. When Mr 

 M'Nab first showed it to me I was bound to con- 

 fess that I had never before seen anything in 

 garden work quite so ugly ; it suggested nothing 

 so much as a gigantic counter in a corn exchange 

 for the display of samples. But at the same time 

 I was bound also to confess that it would pro- 

 bably be a great success for the cultivation of 

 plants, especially Alpines ; for it gave such plants 

 just what they require, shelter from the extreme 

 heat and glow of the sun, separation from other 

 plants which would choke them, and a moist, cool 

 surface for the roots to run in without fear of 

 stagnant water. The result has shown that Mr 

 M'Nab was right ; the plants have done excel- 



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