90 THE WILD GARDEN. 



almost imperceptible chink in an arid rock or Ijoulder. They 

 are often stunted and diminutive in such places, l)ut always 

 more lonu-lived than when f'rown viijorouslv upon the 

 ground. Now, numljers of alpine plants perish if planted in 

 the ordinary soil of our gardens, and many do so where much 

 pains is taken to attend to their wants. This results from 

 over-moisture at the root in winter, the plant being rendered 

 more susceptiljle of injury by our moist green winters 

 inducing it to make a lingering growth. But it is interesting 

 and useful to know that, by placing many of these delicate 

 ])lants where their roots can secure a comparatively dry and 

 well-drained medium, they remain in perfect health. Many 

 ])lants from latitudes a little farther south than our own, and 

 from alpine regions, may hnd on walls, rocks, and ruins, that 

 dwarf, ripe, sturdy growth, stony firmness of root medium, and 

 dryness in winter, M'hich go to form the very conditions that 

 will grow them in a climate entirely different from their own. 

 In many parts of the country it may be said with truth 

 that opportunities for this phase of gardening do not exist; l)ut 

 in various districts, such as the AVye and other valleys, there 

 are miles of rock and rough wall-surface, where the scattering 

 of a few pinches of Arabis, Aubrietia, Erinus, Acanthus, 

 Saxifrage, Violas, Stonecrops, and Houseleeks, would give rise 

 to a "arden of rock blossoms that would need no care from 

 the gardener. Growing such splendid alpine plants as the 

 true Saxifraga longifolia of the Pyrenees on the straight sur- 

 face of a wall is quite practicable. I have seen the rarest 

 and largest of the silvery section grown well on the face of a 

 dry wall : therefore there need be no doubt as to growing the 

 more common and liardv kinds. 



