NATIVE PLANTS IN ROCK-WALL 37 



best things in the place at its own flowering-time, is a 

 colony, also spontaneous, of the Shining Cranesbill 

 (Geranium lucidum), whose glistening, roundish, five- 

 lobed leaves turn almost scarlet towards the end of 

 summer. These are both common hedge-weeds, but 

 so dainty is their structure and kind of beauty that we 

 often pass them by among the coarser herbage of the 

 country lanes and hedges, and only find that they are 

 worthy garden plants when we have them more quietly 

 to ourselves in the rock-wall. There are other wild 

 plants that are also worthy of wall space. The Wall 

 Pennywort (Cotyledon Umbilicus), so common in the 

 south-west of England, is a precious plant, and is 

 especially happy in combination with hardy Ferns. 

 Linaria Cymbalaria is a gem in a rough wall, and, 

 though a doubtful native, is so generally found as 

 a wild wall-plant that it takes its place in books 

 of British botany. The yellow Toadflax (Linaria 

 vulgaris) is also a grand wall-plant, and so is the 

 yellow Corydalis (C. lutea), though the paler flowered 

 and more daintily leaved C. capnoides, also known 

 as C. ochroleuca, is a better plant ; just a good shade 

 more delicate and more beautiful throughout. In 

 considering the best of the native plants for wall- 

 gardening, the Welsh Poppy (Meconopsis cambrica) 

 must not be forgotten ; its place is at the foot 

 of a wall, and in its lower courses among Ferns. 

 Nearly all the British Ferns can be grown in walls, 

 many of them acquiring great luxuriance. As nearly 

 all are plants that love shade and coolness and 

 some degree of moisture, they should be in walls 



