CHAPTEE VII. 
FERN ROCKERY. 
Ferns may fairly be characterized, looking at them in a 
general way, as rock plants ; for there are very few indeed 
of the known species that cannot be successfully grown on 
or between the crevices of rocks. Hence, under cultivation, 
what is called rockery — little eminences, built up irregularly 
jn a pile of any shape, and consisting of a conglomerated 
mass of earth and stones — affords the best means of arranging 
these plants, so as to display to the greatest advantage their 
elegant and graceful forms, and the best means also of 
accommodating the conditions of culture to their natural 
requirements. 
Of all the various methods, too, of growing Ferns, that of 
growing them on ‘ rockery ’ is perhaps the most popular. 
It is certainly a method which admits of the widest possible 
adoption ; for, as in the most extensive grounds there is the 
widest scope for the creation of rockery on a large scale, so, 
on the other hand, there is no bit of garden so small, and no 
tiny strip of courtyard so limited, as to preclude altogether 
the possibility of introducing some little grouping together 
of rocks in association with at least some graceful ferny 
forms. Eockery may fill up the entire area of a large space, 
or it may be used conveniently to supplement any existing 
garden devoted to flowering plants — to fill up in fact in 
such a garden the damp and shady corners which lie beyond 
the borders of the flower world because the brilliant inhabi- 
