m 
Rustic A dornments. 
his garden. A rockery worthy of the name is an adjunct of the garden which 
is primarily a home for mountain plants, a feature in landscape gardening 
pleasant to the eye, and with all its parts in harmony with the surrounding 
trees, shrubs, plants, and ground. It should bear as little of the stamp of art 
as possible, have a bold, free, and natural appearance, and then no phase of 
garden scenery can equal it in point of beauty or interest. 
There are two or three types of rockery in garden scenery. There is the 
large, bold, and extensive kind, which plays such an important part in the 
decoration of a small valley or slope, and which forms a suitable position for 
the growth and display of many of the larger and bolder growing trees, 
shrubs, and plants, and may be the groundwork for some rippling rill or 
flowing cascade. Rockeries of this magnitude require to be constructed by a 
master hand—a true landscape artist—to be perfect examples of garden 
scenery. No amount of detailed description can possibly convey an ac¬ 
curate idea of the construction of this type of rockery. The most we can do 
here is to lay down a few general rules, and leave the rest. And among these 
the first and most important one is, to never attempt the introduction of rock- 
scenery on a large scale in a small garden, or where the conformation of the 
ground does not readily lend itself to it. A hollow, a dell, or a ravine with 
steep sloping sides, and with tree and shrub-crowned summits, are particularly 
happy positions for a large and bold rock scenery. Level ground, or nearly 
so, is not adapted for rockwork on a large scale, but with skill and taste it is 
possible to introduce it to a moderate extent, and add very largely to the 
beauty and interest of the garden. And the next point is to avoid over 
fussiness and exactness in the formation of the rockery. Large and bold 
masses of stone, arranged so as to have the appearance of natural strata, 
should be aimed at, rather than a pure formal arrangement. The surface, 
moreover, should be as diversified, as rugged in outline, and as bold and as 
free as possible. 
The next type of rockery is the moderate one, formed by throwing up 
artificial mounds of earth in certain positions in the garden where they will 
harmonise with the surroundings. For example, some objectionable object 
in the background may require to be screened from view. This can be very 
happily effected by throwing up a large mound of soil, planting the summit 
with trees and shrubs, and transforming the front or most conspicuous slope 
into a rockery. In small gardens it is possible to get some charming effects 
by slightly excavating natural depressions in the surface of the ground on the 
