i6o FLOWERS OF ROCKS, WALLS, ETC. 



Biliiiy Stonecrop is ;i rock phinl growing' on barren rock\' soil, or 

 where there are stretches of sand or oravel derived from the more 

 ancient s^ranitic or schistose rocks. 



A moth, Glvphvpteryx cquitclla, is the only insect which feeds upon 

 it, and no fungus attacks it, perhaps from its acrimonious properties. 



The second Latin name refers to its bitter taste. 



The plant is called 15ird's Bread, Creeping Charlie, Creeping Jack, 

 Creeping Jenny, Creeping Sailor, Crowdy Kit o' the Wall, (iinger, 

 Gold Chain, Gold Dust, Golden Moss, Houseleek, Little Houscleek, 

 Jack-of-the- Buttery, Moss, French Moss, Mouse-tail, Country Pepper, 

 Poor Man's Pepper, Wall Pepper, Pepper Crop, Pig's Ears, Pricket, 

 Prick Madam, Rock Cro[), Rock Plant, Stancroppes, Stonecrop, 

 Stone-hot, .Stonnord, Wall Grass, W'all Mo.ss, WalKvort. It was 

 called Country Pepper and Ginger from its pungent flavour. 



Biting Stonecrop was planted in gardens and used as a pot-herb. 



Pliny said it produced sleep, for which purpose it was wrapped in a 

 black cloth, and put under the pillow unawares. In the early days of 

 herbals it was considered good for dropsy. It is emetic and has been 

 used in scorbutic complaints. 



Essential Specific Ch.aracters: — 



114. Scditut acrc\ L. — Stems in tufts, leaves blunt, imbricate, fleshy, 

 sessile, spurred or gibbous at the base, flowers yellow, in a 3-cleft cyme, 

 sepals gibbous below. 



Houseleek (.Sempervivum tectorum, L.) 



Europe and Western Asia are the regions in the North Temperate 

 Zone in which alone to-day this plant is known. The Houseleek is 

 not a native, and its e.xistence depends largely on the former use to 

 which it was put as a source of ointment. In every village where 

 there still remain old-fashioned thatched cottages, especially in the 

 west, one may be sure to find one or more \\ ith some traces of a roof- 

 garden, made up of Houseleek or Stonecrojx Indeed it is quite a 

 feature of the x^illage communit\', and affords evidence ot the pictur- 

 escjue nature of our country places, in spite of many drawbacks, caused 

 by poverty or the lack of an artistic sense in constructing the dwelling 

 of the labourer. 



The perennial nature of this plant is indicated by the first, and the 

 usual roof habitat by its second Latin name. It is an erect plant, very 

 succulent (assisting water storage), with thick, fleshy leaves, fringed 

 with a ring of hairs, of a reddish tint, the radical leaves arranged in 



