98 TOWN AND WINDOW GARDENING 



taken up with rock plants. They are grown so beauti- 

 fully here ; with nothing but flat fields to work upon, a 

 stretch of rocks has been imported into them so skilfully 

 as to wear a very natural look, and one cannot walk 

 among them without taking an object-lesson on the 

 beauty of bold effects. After falling in love with wide 

 expanses of trailing, creeping, rooting, and clinging Alpine 

 and native rock-plants, one can visit the open frames 

 where small pieces of them are growing in pots. Nothing 

 could be more convenient or pleasanter than the choosing 

 of these and the bearing of them away in safety to indi- 

 vidual hearts and homes. Grown in pots, the most 

 delicate things can be moved in safety. 



The great danger among so much that attracts is that 

 of being tempted to buy more sorts and kinds of plants 

 than can have justice done them in a small garden ; 

 much wiser is it to choose but a few of the best, and let 

 those have space to grow and spread. A cranny can 

 always be found for any rarity, but no " scrappy " 

 rockery, any more than a " scrappy " garden, will ever 

 make for beauty. 



In a gardening paper the other day there was a piece 

 of advice that amused us by its naivete. It was, " never 

 to buy plants, but always to get them given you by 

 friends, because that way you get much bigger pieces." 

 Certainly friends who have a well-established rockery can 

 assist greatly, and a hamper sent us one October was a 

 treasure-trove indeed, not only for the plants we saw and 

 handled, but also for its waifs and strays. Like the magic 

 ferry-boat, that hamper had brought more travellers than 

 eye could see. Next summer they appeared. One was 

 a vigorous plant of bright pink Yarrow, another a fairy 

 Flax (oh, what a delicious blue !), and one day a weird- 

 looking stranger popped up suddenly. He had a beauti- 

 ful cream-coloured suit, and peacock's eyes, which the 

 gardener said quite frightened him. His name we 



