THE ROCK GARDEN I7I 



and the plants thus naturally established often 

 display a charming habit in adapting themselves 

 to their artificial home. Who has not seen a 

 ruined wall topped with pinks, or with snap- 

 dragon, toadflax, and sedum, or hung with the 

 charming grey foHage and glistening white flowers 

 of cerastium? To imitate this is not difficult, 

 but we require the right kind of wall; not the 

 new, neatly pointed red brick affair, but a 

 thing of cracks, crevices, and crannies, such as 

 we find enclosing some old country garden. 

 Given this, the rest is easy. We have only to 

 rub some fine soil into the chinks and to sow the 

 seed of such plants as we desire, covering them 

 up with soil to prevent the birds abstracting 

 them, and in due course we shall have our 

 colony of alpines. 



If no wall exists, then we must build one, 

 and in doing so we may make provision for 

 as much plant life as we please. The wall 

 may be of concrete, rubble, rough stone, or 

 old bricks. Of these, perhaps the best are the 

 last three, though with bricks, unless ample 

 spaces are left between them, there would be 

 difficulty in finding sufficient lodgment for 

 the plants. Stone and rubble, using irregular 



