A FEW NOTES ON ROCK-GARDENS. 
447 
oneself to quite dwarf and low-growing subjects on the rockery- 
proper, unless this be on a very unusually large scale, or except 
as regards quite outlying portions of it. For a special charm of 
the well-furnished rockery is the number and variety of contrast- 
ing colours and forms which the eye takes in in one view ; and 
this coup cVceil is impeded and lost if gross subjects are allowed 
to intrude upon the foreground. 
Again, the best suggestion," to my thinking, which a rock- 
garden can convey is that of the vegetation of high and wind- 
swept alps, where trees, even most shrubs, cannot stand, and 
where plant life is confined to shrubs of recumbent and rigid 
habit, or to plants which nestle and lie low that storm and wind 
may pass over them. 
But while, on the one hand, perhaps the " highest ideal " of 
the rock-garden is found in this direction, on the other anything 
like it has rarely if ever been yet attained. Perhaps we may 
well be content that this should be so. For while the rock- 
garden or rockery is the most suitable home for Alpine plants 
proper, custom and convenience have admitted to it also, hardy 
dwarf plants of all kinds, shrubs as well as plants, whether 
Alpine or not. 
Nor need this be deprecated. Only let it be remembered that 
while one cultural treatment will suit the Alpines proper, 
another may be needful for those dwarf plants which are not so ; 
as, for instance, bulbs on the one hand, and plants from warm 
latitudes on the other. 
This presents a real difficulty for the many, who have not 
available, in themselves or their gardeners, the time and know- 
ledge necessary to discriminate and supply the diverse wants of 
each set of plants. In such cases it is well to confine the plant- 
ing to the easier Alpines, plus that large number of dwarf hardy 
subjects which on one ground or another tlie same conditions 
happen sufficiently to suit. If this be done, and the selection 
be carefully made at starting, the cultural prescriptions for the 
rockery will be reduced very much to this : Plant in well-drained, 
gritty, deep, and otherwise suitable soil, and water when surface 
dry in summer. Weeding goes without saying ; transplanting 
to new soil after some years is good for many or most, and 
necessary for a few. 
Before leaving this corner of the subject I may just remind 
