68 MY GARDEN 



autumns, took himself off. These Japanese toad- 

 lilies are interesting and make splendid pot plants, 

 but their late blooming is against them in the open 

 garden. Next I note the dwarf fuchsia gracilis ; 

 hacquetia, or dondia epipactis ; various veronicas 

 and thymes in scented pillows ; arenaria montana 

 and A. purpurescens ; potentilla alchemilloides ; P. 

 nitida (the best of all), and convolvulus mauritanicus 

 struggling tooth and nail with Lady Larpent's 

 plumbago a most unladylike plant, by the way. 

 I shall have to separate these two. They fight like 

 demons, and the flower-clusters of plumbago and 

 wide purple bells of bindweed sprawl inextricably 

 tangled and twined together in autumn. They will 

 both have to be planted upon another piece of rock- 

 work, there to wage war on a larger scale. Caulo- 

 phyllum, with bronzy foliage and little chocolate 

 blooms, and arnica next occur, while rock - roses 

 yellow, rose, red, orange, and white follow them. My 

 white rock-rose, with a golden eye and hoary foliage, 

 is a true species and one of the rarest of British plants. 

 I am privileged to have it growing wild within a walk 

 of my garden ; and, as if this was not enough good 

 fortune, I also know the home of aster linosyris, or 

 goldilocks a plant as rare as the other, if not so 

 beautiful. The purple gromwell is a third distinguished 

 neighbour of mine. These three, the helianthemum, 

 the aster, and the lithospermum, are all happily settled 

 on my rockery. If you frown, I answer that only a 

 specimen or two of each was taken, and no harm 

 done, for the secret of their homes is pretty safe. A 



