CHAPTEE XVIII 



(BacDen aoiall^ 



Cheddar Pinks — Cacti — Alpine plants — Stonecrops — 

 Emblems from wall- plants. 



An old garden wall is a very precious possession to a 

 gardener. If he finds himself placed in a new garden 

 surrounding a new house he may by much expenditure 

 of labour and money soon get a well-filled garden, but 

 if ever he goes into the garden of a friend who owns 

 an old garden, surrounded or bounded by an old wall, 

 he feels that his own garden wants something which 

 only time can give him. For an old wall is, or may be, 

 very useful to gardeners ; I do not mean for training 

 trees — a new wall will do for that as well, or better — 

 but for planting on it many things which there find 

 their most congenial home. Nature teaches us the 

 lesson by the way she clothes, and clothes rapidly, old 

 ruins; but I do not wish to say anything of this 

 natural clothing of old walls, except that it is well 

 worth noting how many plants seem to prefer these 



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