I/O ROYAL GARDENS 



marshy. Bog gardens give fine opportunities for growing 

 many extremely beautiful and interesting plants, and, where at 

 all possible, should be encouraged. A stream which suggests 

 forming a lake by broadening, draining and dam building at 

 one point, also, by precisely opposite treatment, offers itself for 

 conversion into a bog garden at another. Land bordering 

 the stream should not be drained, but kept as moist as 

 possible. Access to plants, and for working, may be gained 

 by means of large irregular stones placed at convenient dis- 

 tances apart, the intervening spaces being filled with suitable 

 plants, of which lists will be found in many books and mono- 

 graphs on the subject. As far as garden design is concerned 

 the one principle to be observed in making a bog garden 

 is, strict obedience to natural laws ; for a bog garden loses 

 more than half its charm when its artifice is not concealed. 

 Exceedingly interesting and skilfully planned examples, though 

 on very different scales, may be seen both at Sandringham 

 and Norman Tower gardens. 



Rock Gardens. — Here, again, the one great principle is to 

 follow nature. Rock gardens, with their thousand exquisite 

 and often almost microscopic plants, are in very high favour at 

 the present time. They have one advantage over ' natural ' 

 water and bog gardens. These are almost impossible where 

 there is no stream, and where the ground is level, or nearly 

 so ; but rock gardens can be designed and constructed in 

 keeping with almost any surroundings. They will appear 

 to greater advantage, no doubt, in hilly gardens, but even in 

 flat ones have been quite successfully made. Where there is 

 a natural outcrop of rock, very little difficulty will be met 

 with. And, above all, should there happen to be an old 

 quarry in the grounds, every inducement to convert it into 

 a rock garden is presented, and the result is more likely 

 to be a complete success than in any other position. All 

 that is necessary in turning an old quarry into a rock garden 

 is to increase the number of natural crevices and ledges in 

 the stone, and fill them with some of the numberless charming 



