210 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



Holland, but it is completely naturalised in many parts 

 of the United Kingdom. It is one of the most grace- 

 ful wall-creepers that I know, and with me it grows 

 naturally ; but if it did not I should certainly plant it. 

 The flowers are usually a pretty pui'ple, but I have 

 found it with pure white flowers, and there is a varie- 

 gated form ; all are lovely ornaments for any wall. 



King Solomon knew 'the diversities of plants and 

 the virtues of roots,' and he wrote of ' the hyssop that 

 springeth out of the wall,' as well as of ' the cedar tree 

 that is in Lebanon,' and since his time many writers 

 have followed his example, and have written of wall- 

 plants, not only or chiefly from the botanical point of 

 view, but for the obvious lessons which such plants 

 teach. I have seen in some old book of emblems (but 

 I cannot now recall the name) the emblem of a flower- 

 ing plant springing from a wall, with the motto, 

 'Kebus in arduis servare mentem,' and this has been 

 the keynote with all such -writers — the springing forth 

 of healthy life, and the growth of beauty in places 

 where, naturally, we should least expect to meet with 

 them. I must find room for a few such. In the 

 middle of the seventeenth century T. Bailey, Sub-Dean 

 of Wells, was imprisoned in Newgate. While there 

 he published (in 1650) a queer romance, 'A History 

 which is partly True, partly Komantick, morally 



