PRACTICAL BOOK OF GARDEN ARCHITECTURE 



be far better to "lay" the plants while laying the 

 wall. Have a good collection of alpines or rock- 

 loving plants on hand, such as the saxifrage, edel- 

 weiss, and gentian. For the little succulent plants 

 like the sedums or stone-crops, choose according to 

 color, including the golden moss sedum with a mass 

 of small bright yellow flowers ; the album, bearing 

 quantities of pure white flowers among its green 

 foliage ; the sieboldi, with its quaint beauty of round 

 succulent foliage and masses of bright pink flowers, 

 and the showy crimson-flowered coccineum. Then 

 there are various stone-crops with glaucous foliage, 

 and tall-growing varieties which hold their foliage 

 and flowers quite erect after emerging from the rock 

 crevices. These are among the quaintly decorative 

 features in wall building, and they are permanent, 

 clinging to the stone- or brick- work indefinitely, and 

 renewing their beauty from year to year. 



The wall plants with decorative foliage will prove 

 quite as desirable as flowering ones. When the florists 

 advise maximum atropurpureum, never mind its 

 spelling or pronunciation, just remember that it will 

 send up quantities of rich, bronzy purple foliage 

 from the crevices of the rock, and form an erect com- 

 pact mass of unusual beauty. When spectabilis atro- 

 purpurea is suggested, remember that it is strictly 

 one of the desirables, as its broad foliage is of a 



46 



