In My Vicarage Garden 



fibre plants and plants producing chocolate, tea, 

 coffee, cinnamon, cloves, cotton, ginger, gutta- 

 percha, Indiarubber, strychnine, pepper, quinine, 

 sarsaparilla, etc. But I should not consider that 

 I had shown him all he ought to see in this 

 department unless I had also taken him to the 

 museums, in which the many products of the 

 vegetable world are shown in their raw states, in 

 the different processes of manufacture, and in 

 their final results. If he wanted to know the best 

 plants with which to stock his garden for purely 

 ornamental purposes I should take him to the 

 Rock Garden. I consider this one of the great 

 successes of Kew, by which I do not mean that 

 it is the best example of what a Rock Garden 

 should be, and might be, but I consider it a very 

 successful example of such a garden in a public 

 garden, for the requirements of a public and private 

 garden are essentially different. In a private 

 garden the rock garden may be in a retired spot, 

 with small tortuous paths, some of them leading 

 to nowhere in particular, with small nooks and 

 pleasant surprises, ups and downs, and a general 

 wildness. In a public garden all this is impos- 

 sible. The paths must be wide enough for many 

 at once going, it may be, in different directions ; 

 the plan must be clear and well defined ; and the 

 plants named with conspicuous tallies. The idea 

 of the Kew Rock Garden is the dry bed of a 

 small river, such as abound in Spain in summer, 

 of which the bottom forms the path and the sides 

 ISO 



