The Rock Garden 



way a mistake, and the best rock garden I have 

 known was a disused slate quarry in a small wood 

 in a very good garden near Plymouth. It was 

 quite invisible till you were actually in it, and then 

 the disintegrated crumbling slate, through which 

 there was a dripping of water, made a very para- 

 dise for ferns, and not for ferns only, but for many 

 other good plants that loved shade and moisture. 

 This is the secret of the success of the rock 

 garden at Kew. The surface of Kew Gardens is 

 almost a dead level, but when the time came to 

 make a large rock garden, it was wisely deter- 

 mined not to place on the level a huge mountain 

 of stones, but the happy thought was acted on to 

 imitate the dried-up bed of a stream through a 

 rocky soil, of which the banks would form the 

 rock garden. The exigencies of a public botanical 

 garden forced them to do some things that it 

 would not be well to imitate, e.g. the wide gravel 

 walk in the centre, while the flatness of the surface 

 obliged them to show a flat bed to the stream ; if 

 they could have had this on a gentle slope, and if 

 they could also have made some side-paths lead- 

 ing into it, as if they were connected rivulets, the 

 effect would have been better, and they would 

 have had a greater variety of aspects ; still it is a 

 decided success, and, having a liberal supply of 

 water, they are able to keep it always fresh, and 

 the plants look thoroughly comfortable. 



There is one form of rock garden (if we may 

 so call it) which I think might be often used with 

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