The rockwork once formed, choice trailing, creeping, and alpine plants, such as delight naturally in similar situations, may be planted in the soil which fills the interstices between the rocks: when these grow to fill their proper places, partly concealing and adorning the rocks with their neat green foliage and pretty blossoms, the effect of the whole, if properly done, will be like some exquisite portion of a rocky bank in wild scenery, and will be found to give an air at once striking and picturesque to the little scene where it is situated.
In small places where the grounds are extremely limited, and the owner wishes to form a rockwork for the growth of alpine and other similar plants, if there are no natural indications of a rocky surface, a rockwork may sometimes be introduced without violating good taste by preparing natural indications artificially, if we may use such a term. If a few of the rocks to be employed in the rockwork are sunk half or three-fourths their depth in the soil near the site of the proposed rockwork, so as to have the appearance of a rocky ridge just cropping out, as the geologists say, then the rockwork will, to the eye of a spectator, seem to be connected with, and growing out of this rocky spur or ridge below: or, in other words, there will be an obvious reason for its being situated there, instead of its presenting a wholly artificial appearance.
