A FEW summers ago I watched with much interest the construction of two rockeries in a neighboring garden. The first step taken was to saw off the top of a noble tree that overshadowed the proposed site, leaving only the great trunk with ungainly stumps of branches; these, in time, were peeled of their bark, thus giving the whole thing a wierd, uncanny look especially on a moonlight night. At the foot of the tree, now shorn of its beauty, a vine was planted, whose supposed duty was to cover up the ruin made by the hand of man. Then the serious work of building began, for which several wagon loads of soil and quarried stone were requisite, as well as the services of a mason. Slowly the walls arose, layer upon layer, until, after many days, they were completed, to the owner's great delight. There they stood, within twenty feet of each other, two wondrous mounds six feet high and five feet in diameter, composed of many ponderous stones, with here and there great yawning pockets, or crevices, for the reception of plants. Surely such rockeries as these would satisfy the most ambitious, and the owner seemed to take much pleasure in them.

But, fortunately, they had been built in the rear of the garden where they did not spoil the effect of a nicely kept lawn, which latter fact is worthy of consideration. Many persons imagine rockeries so ornamental that they d es erve a most conspic-u o u s place, sometimes even in the midst of a lawn or a gar-den, where the sun shines fiercest, when, on the contrary, they should be concealed and overshadowed by trees and shrubs. There are rockeries and rockeries, and while some of them merit the ridicule they receive, the fact remains that, for filling an out-of-the-way shady nook of the garden, they are unequalled. But they must be properly managed, not built up like a wall; neither is it necessary that they should be round, as many seem to think. By cutting away part of a mound or hillock of soil, the stones may be piled up against it in such a way that they resemble the cropping-out of a rocky substratum, thus forming a lodgment for wild flowers; and furthermore, the stones of a rockery should never be white-washed, as this not only spoils all their native beauty, but also causes the radiation of heat to such a degree as to prevent the growth of the plants.

Fig 7. Tea Blood. (See page 665).

A very good way to make a rockery is first to place some heavy stones firmly in position as a foundation, cover them with soil, and then upon the soil pile more stone, pushing them in as irregularly as may be making the whole work look as little like human handiwork as possible. It should appear as though Dame Nature had dropped a bit of the forest in your garden. Then go to the woods for your flowers. No cultivated ones, however pretty, should have a resting place on it. It is a bit of the woods, and should have wood flowers. There are plenty of them - stone crop, Indian pinks, wild geranium, which loves a rockery ; the dainty hepatica, and, above all, ferns. When these conditions have all been fulfilled, a rockery is produced that is beautiful in itself, and is in harmony with its surroundings ; it will be a constant pleasure.

Bellevue, Pa. Margaret D. Brown.