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unaffected by evaporation. Many failures may be attributed 

 to a want of appreciation of these facts, and a belief that, 

 since nothing is obviously growing, nothing need be done, 

 the end result being that "nothing" is the reward, the 

 failures being imputed to mysterious causes which had 

 nothing at all to do with them. 



Chas. T. Drubry, F.L.S., V.M.H. 



ROCKWORK ON SLOPES. 



In many gardens undue steepness is partially avoided by 

 a series of terraces forming alternate levels, and slopes of 

 forty to forty-five degrees. These slopes are also frequently 

 turfed, and constitute one of the gardener's most difficult 

 tasks to keep in presentable order, for the simple reason 

 that they are unnatural. 



Slopes of such gradients only occur naturally in rocky 

 regions, and are there usually formed by rocky debris 

 weathered down from higher levels, and under such cir- 

 cumstances an abundance of alpine plants take the place of 

 grass, and find a congenial harbourage in the rough and open 

 soil. Here, then, we have a hint from Nature for a better 

 utilisation of such terrace slopes than devoting them to a 

 monotonous and formal covering of grass, for if we face 

 them instead with a sort of rock wall, constructed in proper 

 fashion, we can find no fitter home for an alpine collection 

 if the aspect be southerly, or for a hardy fern collection if it 

 faces north or north-east. 



Assuming the slope to be at an angle of forty-five degrees, 

 or more, the best plan is to build a sort of rock wall, and the 

 first step would be, of course, to remove the turf entirely, 

 or the grass will assuredly assert itself detrimentally later on. 

 This being done, the soil should be well dug up two spits 



