210 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



Holland, but it is completely naturalised in many parts 

 of the United Kingdom. It is one of the most grace- 

 ful wall-creepers that I know, and with me it grows 

 naturally ; but if it did not I should certainly plant it. 

 The flowers are usually a pretty purple, but I have 

 found it with pure white flowers, and there is a varie- 

 gated form ; all are lovely ornaments for any wall. 



King Solomon knew 'the diversities of plants and 

 the virtues of roots/ and he wrote of ' the hyssop that 

 springeth out of the wall/ as well as of ' the cedar tree 

 that is in Lebanon,' and since his time many writers 

 have followed his example, and have written of wall- 

 plants, not only or chiefly from the botanical point of 

 view, but for the obvious lessons which such plants 

 teach. I have seen in some old book of emblems (but 

 I cannot now recall the name) the emblem of a flower- 

 ing plant springing from a wall, with the motto, 

 'Rebus in arduis servare mentem/ and this has been 

 the keynote with all such writers the springing forth 

 of healthy life, and the growth of beauty in places 

 where, naturally, we should least expect to meet with 

 them. I must find room for a few such. In the 

 middle of the seventeenth century T. Bailey, Sub-Dean 

 of Wells, was imprisoned in Newgate. While there 

 he published (in 1650) a queer romance, 'A History 

 which is partly True, partly Romantick, morally 



