THE WHITE ROCKERY 79 



It does amiably, shakes out its exquisite purple bells 

 once, then with winter perishes. One cannot go on 

 renewing choice things every year. That way the 

 workhouse lies. What is the secret of cyananthus ? 

 I wish I knew, for there is no more beautiful little 

 plant on a rockery. Why does it throw up the 

 sponge so easily with me ? Artimesia argentea does 

 well, and its hoary foliage and yellow blossom is 

 pleasant sight. It smells like a grocer's shop, curiously 

 enough. Artimesia lanata, with masses of corn- 

 coloured inflorescence, though handsomer, is not 

 quite so strong. It suffers terribly from the wet, and 

 seems, with its dense, silky clumps of foliage, to find 

 immense difficulty in getting dry again after a drench- 

 ing. All these woolly things are the same. Andro- 

 saces must be hung flat, or their rosettes and cushions 

 will perish during a wet winter ; and another essential 

 treasure, the delicious, rosy potentilla nitida, soon 

 comes to grief unless protected with a bit of glass 

 when autumn falls. Androsaces, by the way, do not 

 all prosper with me, and I have failed to please several 

 among them. A dry-built wall, with good soil and 

 bits of red sandstone packed between the stones, 

 is the place for them. More small veronicas come 

 next pinguifolia; the beautiful deep blue satureioides ; 

 the large pale Lyall's, and others. V. repens spreads 

 over some crocus clumps then linum arboreum's 

 glaucous foliage and grand yellow blooms rise, and 

 we reach a tract of little various bulbs to be men- 

 tioned anon. Aquilegia glandulosa jacunda has a niche 

 to herself as well she may have with such a name ; 



