210 
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
agree. It is generally admitted to be a most successful example 
of its particular style of gardening, carried out on a site which gave 
no natural help in its construction. It may, indeed, be accepted 
as a model to be copied where similar difficulties have to be over- 
come. The construction of a rock garden on sites where natural 
hills and hollows and out-cropping stone exist is a comparatively 
easy affair. All one has to do is to provide suitable accommodation 
for the plants, and to add or remodel whatever rockwork may be 
necessary without clashing with the general character of the sur- 
roundings. The introduction of a similar feature into an ordinary 
garden without any naturally picturesque contours presents a much 
more difficult problem. The best way is to adopt some plan suggested 
by Nature itself. This was what was done at Kew. 
The general idea was to copy, as far as was practicable, one of 
those narrow mountain' watercourses characteristic of certain parts 
Th M d 1 Py renees ' t* 1686 places the stream dries up 
during summer, leaving stranded on the banks fragments 
p ‘ of rock and tree-stumps brought down by the winter 
torrent. A luxuriant herbaceous vegetation springs up on the banks 
during the summer, whilst above them a shrubby vegetation occurs. 
An imitable model was thus provided. In order to get the necessary 
depth with as little labour as possible, the soil was thrown up from 
the bottom on to the sides. The path representing the bed of the 
stream was laid out in a winding manner, by which means a consider- 
able variety of exposures was provided, and a succession of different 
effects obtained. The exigencies of a public garden made it necessary 
that the path should be broad and smooth. In a private garden it 
might be much narrower, and instead of being gravelled, it might 
be paved irregularly with stones and slabs of rock. Numbers of 
inlets or recesses were made at the sides and, to give diversity to the 
scene, elevated mounds were formed on the promontories left by the 
curving of the walk. Two of these mounds, planted with Mount 
Atlas cedars, now 40 feet high, give height and dignity to the whole, 
and help to impart a sense of seclusion as well. This sense of seclusion, 
which most people feel to be conducive and proper to the study and 
enjoyment of the class of plants here grown, is further secured by 
planting the summits of the banks with evergreens. This is quite 
in keeping with the general idea of the mountain waterway just 
described. The presence of a feature like this Rock Garden amidst 
