208 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



very difficult to grow the beautiful cobweb stonecrops 

 {Sem.perviimm araclinoideum). But the late Mr, Wilson 

 Saunders, a most successful cultivator of rare and 

 difficult plants, used to grow it Avell on a bare stone 

 without any soil, and in such a position I have grown 

 it several times, till it gradually gets destroyed by the 

 damp atmosphere. The first time I saw it growing 

 wild was on a narrow ledge of the old bridge at Hos- 

 penthal near Andermatt, and there it was so feebly 

 attached to the stone that the slightest touch dis- 

 lodged it. I have no doubt it would grow on any 

 wall, but if put high up on the wall its wonderful cob- 

 webs would be invisible ; yet it might be worth grow- 

 ing even there if it would produce its flowers, which 

 are of a rich crimson colour, but it is a shy bloomer 

 out of doors in most parts of England.^ Many of the 

 saxifrages are very difficult to grow out of doors, but 

 two of the most difficult and most beautiful, S. floru- 

 lenta from the Maritime Alps, and aS^. longifolia from 

 the Pyrenees, are now grown successfully and easily at 

 Kew by inserting them in the horizontal crevices of 

 a wall-like rock-Avork. Another alpine that can be 

 treated in the same way is the edelweiss. Not many 

 years ago it was considered almost impossible to grow 



1 See paper on Wall-gardening at M. Boissiers in Gard. Chron., 

 June 1890, p. 791, and September, p. 265. 



