GARDEN WALLS 205 



plants are those made of oolite or sandstone. In many 

 parts of the country, especially in the sandstone dis- 

 tricts, the wall is finished with a thin layer of stones 

 slightly projecting, and upon this projection are placed, 

 vertically, stones of various thickness and height, which 

 thus in time form ' pockets ' of old mortar mixed with 

 much vegetable matter arising from dead leaves and 

 weeds, which make happy homes for many good 

 plants. 



Chief among such plants I place the Cheddar pink. 

 In its native home on the Cheddar cliffs it grows 

 chiefly in small tufts on projecting ledges of the cliff, 

 and brought into the garden it is not an easy plant to 

 grow in the open border, but it can be easily grown if 

 its root uninjured (as it seldom is when bought at 

 Cheddar) is inserted under the coping-stone of a wall. 

 In that position it will flower freely, and increase by 

 groAving doAvnwards; and such plants I have on the 

 wall of my garden, which have probably been there for 

 more than sixty years, and live and floAver without any 

 attention or protection ; and in a garden near Bath I 

 have seen a plant which, originally placed on the top 

 of an old freestone wall, now hangs down in a beauti- 

 ful mat, more than five feet in length, and three feet 

 across. And I believe the same treatment is good for 

 all the tribe of pinks. We learn this from our own 



