WILD WALL-GARDENS 



235 



proportion in all its parts, whereas the wall-flower is apt 



to over-develop its flowers at the expense of proportionate 



foliage. The minute yet individual toad-flax blossoms are 



the most perfect expression of that miniature and fastidious 



beauty which is characteristic of wall-gardens, especially 



wild ones. As we trace this little plant wandering at the 



gaps of the wall, we lose our 



accustomed sense of scale, and 



enter mentally into a fairyland 



of new dimensions ; it is the 



same as when we watch the 



ant toiling with its treasure of 



a crumb through the jungle of 



the grass-roots, or see the 



little gilded beetles of June 



launch themselves from the 



edge of the violet leaves like 



boys diving into a stream. 



This toad-flax is said to be 

 an exotic plant, but perhaps 

 with no better reason than 

 the Cheddar pink of the grey 

 college walls at Oxford. The 

 story goes that this pink 

 was brought to England by 

 the Romans ; but the pink 



family are fond of rocky bluffs, and there seems no sure 

 ground for doubting that its headquarters on the Cheddar 

 cliffs are an original haunt. Pinks can endure a hot and 

 thirsty site by means of their stringy growth and protective 

 sun-livery of pale grey-green ; stonecrops, which abound on 

 old walls, store up water in their fleshy capsules of leaves 

 against the fiery days. Both white and yellow stonecrops 



IVY-LEAVED TOAD-FLAX 



