220 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



there may be some free and hardy enough to make an edging in the 

 choicest flower-bed. 



The Siberian Stonecrop (Sedum Ewersi). A stout, grey plant, 

 forming a bold edging, quite hardy and easy of culture and increase 

 in any soil. The Japanese Stonecrop (S. Sieboldi) is even more 

 graceful, but in my soil not so free, and a victim to slugs. So it gets 

 some comfort in a frame, and in spring is promoted to a vase, in 

 which it is happy and quite pleasant to see, even well into autumn, 

 when in most places it will be better for some protection. 



Purple Rock-Cress (Aubrittia). Of the multitude of rock and 

 alpine plants that come to these islands, this is the most useful, 

 growing on walls, rocks, and wherever a few grains of it are sown. 

 Edgings formed with it are beautiful in every way, those best made 

 of rich purple kinds. At one time different Latin names were given 

 to the forms of the plant, but they are all varieties of one mother 

 plant, though varying much in lovely colour, and all as hardy as the 

 Dock. Their flowering season is early, and usually three months long. 

 The growth is so dense that the plants are able to keep free of weeds, 

 and edgings made with them may endure for years. 



Rockfoils (Saxifraga). The mossy kinds grow freely in cool soil, 

 but are apt to perish in a dry one, and are only useful in shade. The 

 Silvery Rockfoils I used with good result, but these are apt to get 

 patchy in time, and the flowers are rather in the way. Yet I am 

 grateful to them, for silvery bells of the Aizoon group often carried 

 me through before getting so keen on the plants that grace the beds 

 with their flowers all the summer. 



Great Indian Rockfoils (Megasea). These I make extensive use 

 of in margining large groups of flowering trees. Bold, free, and 

 taking on often a good colour, they are excellent rightly used, and 

 have the good quality of keeping off weeds. They are among my 

 friends for that reason, and are valued not for narrow edgings, but 

 may well spread into effective belts here and there about the 

 shrubbery. In very hard winters the leaves may be injured, but they 

 soon recover, and have kept many a corner at peace for years in the 

 poorest soils. 



Barrenworts (Epimedium). Having plenty of these, they were 

 tried as a stout edging, framing, so to say, large masses of shrubs 

 and fruit trees in the orchard, and the way they have done it deserves 

 a word. Hardy, strong growers, and with a fine classic form of leaf, 

 good as winter colour, they formed a noble frame to the groups, and 

 did not allow a weed to come near. True weed-killers, and for 

 long years. 



The Japanese Stonecrop (Sedum spectabile). Long an admirer of 

 this tall Stonecrop, I tried it around a mass of Rhododendrons and 



