NOTES ON DECORATIVE GARDENING 
29 
3. PICTURESQUE OR ROCKY TANK FOR 'WATER PLANTS. 
features are perhaps over done, but are an excellent example of the highest and most laborious style 
to which architectural gardening has been carried in Italy. 
The engravingNo. 3 exhibits a canal supplied in a similar manner, and for a similar purpose, as in 
No. 1, but which is treated in a manner precisely the opposite of the symmetrical or architectural. The 
picturesque, as it is termed, has been the effect aimed at, in the form of a rocky valley, which it is 
intended should be entirely screened from the rest of the grounds by means of well disposed shrub¬ 
beries, leaving only an approach through a tunnel of rock. A completely sequestered spot of such 
totally distinct character would form a very pleasing contrast to the more regular portion of the 
grounds, and the aquatic plants, which may be the same as those in the engraving No. i, would, in a 
situation so sheltered, thrive with great luxuriance. In the interstices of the surrounding rocks, 
Broom and double-flowering Furze should be planted, with hardy Cistuses, and a variety of Ferns; 
and so completed, the scene would be very original in its general effect. 
A tank of rocky character must be prepared exactly in the same way as the one previously described 
as far as its foundations, supply of water, &c., are concerned. The form, however, must of course be 
irregular, the rocky effect of the sides being produced by bricks irregularly placed, and roughly 
covered with cement, as also the opening for letting in the water. The detached pieces of rock should, 
if possible, be rough pieces of real stone, collected in the neighbourhood; which in many places, such 
as the red sandstone districts, is easily accomplished, such pieces, in picturesque forms, being very 
abundant. But where real stone is not available, such masses may be formed by bricks roughly 
covered with cement, and will produce a very good effect, if the eye of a tasteful director superintends 
the formation of the outline and position. I recommend this latter mode of producing rock-work as 
very superior to a collection of heterogeneous materials, which always produces a petty, broken, and 
patchy effect, while the general similarity of colour of the cement-work gives continuity and grandeur 
to the design, and the forms may with these materials be made large and majestic in their character, 
to any extent that the nature of the design admits of. 
In the rocky tank, I have supposed the waste water to escape in the form of a small open stream 
among pieces of rock, which, with the addition of a few well-selected pebbles in its channel, would 
produce a very pleasing feature in such a scene. 
