2i2 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
and varieties. Of leading importance, too, are the Campanulas, 
gentians, Veronicas, Dianthuses, and Silenes. Often growing on and 
attached to the stones themselves are numerous Sedums (stonecrops) 
and Sempervivums (house-leeks). 
To provide as varied a set of conditions as possible, specially pre- 
pared sites were made. About midway in the Rock Garden there 
China and Japan, notable for their noble, finely-cut foliage. Here 
also may be seen fine plants of Primula rosea and P. japonica, marsh 
marigold (Caltha), and globe flowers (Trollius). In another place a 
bay made up of sea-sand is devoted to salt-loving or seaside plants, 
such as sea-holly, marram grass, sea-pea, thrifts, etc. In other bays 
prepared for peat-loving plants are numerous hardy orchids, rare 
species of Gaultheria, dwarf members of the heath family, Cornus 
canadensis, and many more. One of the most charming effects 
obtainable in a rock garden is where trailing plants are planted 
so as to hang over the face of large stones. Several of them are to 
be seen here ; especially noticeable are Iberis sempervirens, Onosma 
echioides (golden drop), Arabis, and Aubrietia. In one part many 
stones are clothed with the delightful Arenaria balearica (creeping 
sandwort), covering them in spring with innumerable tiny, white, 
star-like flowers. 
At the southern end is a damp, shady recess, where are cultivated 
the Himalayan and Chinese Meconopsis, beautiful allies of the poppies. 
rosette-like Ramondias thrive perfectly. Near the same place is a 
colony of hardy ferns, consisting of types found wild in Britain, and 
bordering the steps leading out towards the Cumberland Gate are 
fine masses of the Royal fern (Osmnnda rcgalis). This part of the 
Rock Garden is very much beautified in summer by quantities of 
the willow gentian ( Gentiana asclepiadea), both the blue-purple type 
and its white variety. In early spring much of the floral display is 
produced by bulbous plants, like the Chionodoxas (naturalised here), 
snowdrops and snowflakes, dog’s-tooth violet (Erythronium), and 
was formed a dripping well, the water from which, passing 
through a piece of ground made watertight twelve inches 
or so beneath the surface, forms a small bog. The most 
effective plants of this bog are species of Rodgersia from 
Meconopsis 
and Ramondia. 
In the same recess grow several species of lady-slipper, 
notably Cypripedium spectabilis, and in the chinks 
of the stones making up the steep sides the exquisite, 
