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JOURNAL OF THE EOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
A FEW NOTES ON ROCK-GARDENS. 
[Read by Mr. H. Selfe Leonard, F.R.H.S., before the Horticultural Club, 
January 14, 1896.] 
RocK-GAEDENS and rockeries of every kind are multiplying fast, 
and if the love of plants and of flowers goes on increasing, these, 
I cannot doubt, must increase too. For how otherwise can such 
variety, amount, and permanence of plant beauty be brought 
together within so small a space ? How otherwise can these be 
"mounted" to so great advantage? How otherwise can the 
plantsman's hunger, for a garden interesting and beautiful all 
the year round, be so well satisfied? Little wonder that so 
many, like the squalling infant grabbing at Pears's soap, " won't 
be happy till " they " get it," i.e. a rockery if not a rock-garden. 
And they are right. 
I would accentuate the fact that a chief value of rock-garden 
or rockery is, that if wisely furnished its beauty is maintained 
(as the herbaceous border's is not) throughout the year, including 
the winter months, and if garnished with many flowers through 
but nine months out of the twelve, yet it is so with plants of 
beauty and interest, during all. 
And I recommend to others my own practice, when planting 
a new rockery for myself or for others, first to plant it as (so to 
speak) ''itwull look in winter." Half the plantable space may 
well be used in making such an evergreen framework. I should 
rather say evcrliving than evergreen. 
For much beautiful and persistent foliage, whether of shrub, 
of carpeter, or of other plant, is not green, but silvery, or grey, 
or golden, or even purple. The wealth of material for this 
purpose is vastly greater than is commonly taken advantage of. 
The list is far too long to rehearse, and must be extracted from 
the leading catalogues, or, even better, noted down in situ in 
a large collection. ])ut I may perhaps advantageously indicate 
the classes of plants at least which most contribute to this 
valuable part of the rockery's furniture. 
As regards both shrubs and plants, there is in my view no 
more important, if often forgotten, rule than this, vi/. to confhie 
