AVILD GARDENING ON WALLS OR RUINS. 



8f) 



at Oxford, many Stonecrops and alliiMl plants, the Aubrietia 

 and AraLis, 



A most interesting exani})le of "wall gardening is shown 

 on the opposite page. In the gardens at Great Tew, 

 in Oxfordshire, this exquisite little alpine plant, which 

 usually roots over the moist surface of stones, estal)lished 

 itself high up on a wall in a small recess, where half a brick 

 had been displaced. The illustration tells the rest. It is 



z^:^^^--, 



'Mm 



Cheddar Pink, Saxifrage, and Ferns, on cottage wall at IMells. 



suggestive, as so many things are, of the numerous plants 

 that may l)e grown on walls and such unpromising surfaces. 



A mossy old wall, or an old ruin, would afi'ord a position 

 for many rock -plants which no specially prepared situation 

 could rival ; l»ut even on well-preserved walls we can 

 establish some little beauties, wdiich year after year Mill 

 al)undantly repay for the slight trouble of planting or sowing 

 them. Those who have observed how dwarf plants grow on 

 the tops of mountains, or on elevated stony ground, must 

 have seen in what unpromising j^ositions many tiourish in 

 perfect health — fine tufts sometimes springing from an 



