FERN ROCKERY 
77 
as they soon become coated with a covering of moss and 
seedling Ferns, and thus greatly help to add to the pic- 
turesqueness and beauty of the rockery. 
If it be desired to build a rockery in circular form on the 
open ground without the support of any walls, very much 
the same arrangement must be pursued in its construction 
as that already described. 
When, however, the whole structure is completed, the soil 
tilled in, and everything ready for the reception of the Ferns, 
great care should be taken in planting them, so that their 
roots may be well and closely covered, and their crowns 
firmly placed in the soil in the various nooks and stations 
selected for them. The larger kinds of Ferns will most 
suitably occupy the lower positions in the rockery, the 
higher, more exposed, and somewhat drier parts being 
devoted to the rock-loving and other small species. There 
should, in the arrangement of the different species, be no 
crowding or confusing of fronds. Holes or crevices in many 
of the blocks of stone will afford convenient places for the 
stone- and-mortar-loving F erns. 
But lessons in the whole process of constructing a rockery, 
and in the planting and disposition of Ferns, can best be 
had from the wonderful teachings of Nature. Half-an- hour’s 
study of a natural rockery in some moorland wild or rocky 
glen will give more experience in the art of rock work making 
than any amount of mere explanation. To Nature, therefore, 
the enthusiastic Fern cultivator is referred as to the best 
guide. The garden rockery may be shaped so as to make it 
a representation in miniature of a rugged hill-side, with its 
crags and plateaux, its slopes and hollows. If a garden be 
occupied by successive tiers of rockery, with such a central 
piece of water as we have already suggested in the preceding 
chapter, then, if it be still water, it may represent the silent 
pool pent between rising rocky ridges in the moorland. Or 
