The Conservatory. 
139 
a more natural and pleasing appearance, but also provide a good rooting 
medium for creepers of all kinds, and an excellent means of screening 
objectionable pots from view by plunging them below the surface. Such a 
bank should be formed according to the taste and means of the amateur 
gardener, avoiding any rigidness or formality in outline by making the latter 
and the surface as diversified as possible. Miniature hills, dales, nooks, and 
crannies can thus be formed by the aid of the soil and the stones, and over 
the whole surface ferns of well-nigh all sizes can be planted to grow up and 
give form and character to the rockery. Interspersed among these, seasonable 
plants in flower may be plunged, care being taken before doing so to see that 
the roots are thoroughly moist. The pots should be plunged low enough to 
conceal the rims, and a slight cup formed round the stem to receive water 
when necessary. Foliage plants as well can, of course, be similarly treated, 
and it will be found that not more than a third of the flowering plants necessary 
by the usual plan will be needed to produce a much more pleasing effect. 
The creepers will also have substantial root space, and, as a consequence, 
they will grow and flower more vigorously, and the extra atmospheric humidity 
engendered by the great body of soil will keep insects of the thrip and red 
spider class effectually at bay. 
The bare walls may be covered with the foliage of Ficus repens , the plants 
growing in the bed ; or large and small rustic pockets, fixed into the wall with 
cement and iron stays, may be filled with soil and planted with ferns. 
Where dampness is of little consequence, a far prettier way of covering a 
wall is to fix some stout wide-mesh wire netting, about two inches from the 
wall, and to fill the intervening space with peat turves neatly packed together. 
This forms a good solid vertical bed of soil, in which ferns, tradescantia, 
Ficus minima , ornamental-leaved begonias, and other plants may be planted 
with a certainty of their thriving and forming a beautiful mass of greenery, if 
kept well moistened. Such a wall will last for many years—as long, at any 
rate, as the plants can find sustenance in the peat. Another good way of 
achieving a similar result is to drive stout iron hooks in the wall so as to 
project four or five inches, and then stretch a two-inch mesh wire netting 
tightly across, securing it to the hooks. When the first width is secured at 
the bottom, get some sphagnum or common moss, and place a thick layer of 
this against the inside of the wire netting, and fill the remaining space with a 
compost of two parts fibry peat and one part fibrous loam, all fine particles 
being previously removed by sifting. As the process of filling the first 
