CHAPTER X 



SMALL ROCK-GARDENS 



An artificial rockery is usually a bit of frankly simple 

 make-believe. Nine times out of ten there is some- 

 thing about it half funny, half pathetic, so innocent, 

 so childish is its absolute failure to look like real 

 rocky ground. And even if for a moment one suc- 

 ceeds in cheating oneself into thinking that it is 

 something like a bit of rocky nature, there is pretty 

 sure to be the zinc label, with its stark figure and 

 ghastly colouring, looking as if it were put there of 

 cruel purpose for the more effectual shattering of the 

 vain illusion. I suppose that of all metallic surfaces 

 there is none so unlovely as that of zinc, and yet we 

 stick upright strips of it among, and even in front of, 

 some of the daintiest of our tiny plants. We spend 

 thought and money, and still more money's-worth in 

 time and labour, on making our little rocky terraces, 

 and perhaps succeed in getting them into nice lines 

 and planted with the choicest things, and then we 

 peg it all over with zinc labels ! I am quite in 

 sympathy with those who do not know their plants 

 well enough to do without the labels ; I have passed 

 through that stage myself, and there are many cases 



