THE WHITE ROCKERY 65 



blossom. In the next ledge a 'blue-flowered syntheris 

 and asperula nitida flourish with saxifraga aizoon, the 

 little English mountain everlasting, antennaria dioica, 

 and the least of the willows, the tiny salix reticulata. 

 The edelweiss does well with me, but slugs adore this 

 plant. It is easily grown from seed, and will prosper, 

 I believe, anywhere on limestone. Dianthus neglectus 

 next catches my eye with the rosy little willow herb, 

 epilobium obcordatum from Sierra Nevada, and a plant 

 of vaccinium Vitis-idaea. This evergreen whortleberry 

 is common in Derbyshire, and I have good clumps 

 from the Peak, but in our county of Devon it happens 

 to be exceedingly rare. Only upon one tor in the 

 heart of Dartmoor may it be found, and there its 

 little snowy bells are shaken in spring and its scarlet 

 fruits appear during August. Drabas and sedums 

 occur next, and the front of the rockery here is draped 

 with aubrietias of various colours, packed with eche- 

 verias and supported by heucheras, that would like to 

 spread into one's path. My favourite at this spot is 

 erodium Reichardi, a native of Majorca and a rock 

 gem. It spreads a neat rosette of tiny leaves and 

 lifts therefrom generous succession of dainty white 

 blossoms. Erodium macradenum from the Pyrenees 

 is also in good trim elsewhere. Its fern-like leaves 

 and purple and white blossoms make a feature of any 

 rock-work. Looked at through a lens, the veined 

 blooms of erodiums are very lovely. Sometimes these 

 plants will fade away and die after some tremendous 

 outburst of bloom. Therefore you need reserves. The 

 great erodium, manescavi, grows like a weed in my 



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