this in mind, the garden was located opposite, and adjacent to the 
Ecological Section, in point of fact being a part of and tying up 
with the latter feature. The desirability of makingthe rock garden 
an adjunct to the Ecological Section resulted in a south eastern 
exposure which is not considered ideal from the gardening stand- 
point, because of the lack of shade for the plants that object to 
full sunshine. This disadvantage has been overcome by saving 
a few small trees that happened to be on the site and by disposing 
many of the larger boulders so that they cast some shade. 
Rock gardens undoubtedly were brought into existence 
mainly for the benefit of alpines; rock plants, not necessarily 
alpines, being included later. In actual practice, most rock 
gardens are not limited to these two groups. At the present time, 
in many well known gardens, any hardy plants of a dwarf nature 
are considered as suitable planting material. Reginald Farrar, 
the well known English authority on rock gardens, in his defini- 
tion of plants suitable for a rock garden . . . “includes every- 
thing that will look well in a rock garden”. Under this ruling 
many plants, not alpine, not saxatile, and whose cultivation pre- 
sents no difficulties under the conditions obtaining in the 
perennial border or shrubbery must be admitted. Owing to the 
difficulty of quickly assembling a large collection of alpine and 
rock plants, and the necessity of planting some quick growing 
material to hide the glaring hideousness of some of the boulders, 
Mr. Farrar’s definition of what constitutes a rock garden plant 
has been temporarily accepted by the Botanic Garden. The ideal 
in mind, however, is to strictly limit the planting to material that 
really “belongs”. With this end in view, our stock of alpine 
and rock plants is constantly being increased by propagation 
from seeds and cuttings, and by exchange and purchase. Un- 
fortunately the actual planting cannot go on as fast as could be 
desired. Many of our rare plants have been stolen almost imme- 
diately after being set out (apparently we have a connoisseur of 
alpine plants in our midst), and in some cases our entire stock 
of some rare plants has been lost in this way. This has indicated 
the necessity of waiting until a considerable quantity of these 
rare plants can be propagated before planting any of them in the 
garden, so that a reserve supply may be held in a more secluded 
spot to guard against accidents. 
Montague Free. 
