WILD WALL-GARDENS 



IN the midst of the summer luxuriance of vegetation there is 

 a curious attraction in the miniature gardens of dwarf plants 

 which are fostered here and there where either soil or 

 moisture is deficient. When the lack of sufficient moisture 

 is the cause of the dwarfing of the plant, these Japanese 

 gardens of nature are usually found on dry crags and pin- 

 nacles of rock, or the copings and crannies of dry walls. 

 Elsewhere, by the sides of springs and in stony dripping 

 lanes, moisture is abundant, but there is no depth of soil ; and 

 here there arises a fairylike flora of another class, in which 

 flowering plants are largely replaced by ferns and liverwort 

 and mosses miniature representatives of an older vegetable 

 kingdom. 



The richest of these dwarf-gardens are to be found on 

 the top of old brick or soft stone walls enclosing an ordinary 

 garden; the wild wall-garden is a miniature copy of the 

 garden tended by man. It is often a delightful surprise to 

 find how nature has been quietly mimicking us, like a grave 

 child ; for there is enough of the artificial human element in 

 these dwarf-gardens to temper the absolute simplicity in wild 

 nature with an artfulness which is at least fairylike. The 



