CHAPTER IX 



LARGE ROCK-GARDENS 



Though I have to be contented with an Alpine garden 

 on a very small scale, I like to plan a large rock-garden 

 in imagination. It is in the lower part of a steep hill- 

 side, a little gorge or dell with its own stream and 

 natural rock cropping out. At the desired spot I 

 would build a pond-head across the dell, and following 

 the indication of local stratification, I would arrange 

 large masses of the natural stone so as to form a rocky- 

 heading, with deep rifts well packed with soil for 

 Ferns. The water would be led over this rocky head, 

 which should be about twenty feet high, in various 

 ways ; in one place by a clear fall into a deep pool, in 

 others by shorter cascades and cunningly- contrived 

 long slides of differing angles. How well I remember 

 such places in the Alps, and how delightful it was to 

 watch the different ways of the water. 



In one place there should be a splash on to a rock 

 for the benefit of Ramondia and Soldanella and Saxi- 

 fraga aizoides, that delight in nearness to water and 

 a bath of spray. Excepting just these plants, I think 

 I should let this region be devoted to Ferns, so as to 

 give a simple picture of one thing at a time, and not 



