THE WHITE ROCKERY 81 



gulf yawned beneath ; and far below their mountain 

 home one saw the twinkle of a river. This man's wife 

 was making a basket of grass. She had just com- 

 pleted it, and I secured it for a franc to hold my 

 plants. The Arab introduced her with some formality, 

 and I told him that he had done well to marry her, 

 and that she was " une tres jolie femme." Herein I 

 exaggerated a little, but he appeared to be exceed- 

 ingly pleased, and so did she. One may speak with 

 this familiar impertinence to the mongrel Arabs about 

 the neighbourhood of Algiers. They like it ; they 

 think the better of you for it ; but if you attempted 

 thus to discuss their wives with the nobler desert 

 folk with Bedouins or Kabyles there is little doubt 

 that the consequences would be exceedingly un- 

 pleasant for you. 



I only grow one or two annuals on my white 

 rockery, and these no such place should be without, 

 lonopsidium acaule is the neatest, trimmest, brightest 

 and pluckiest little lavender-eyed mite to be seen in 

 any garden anywhere. There is a cheerful happiness 

 in the very look of this flower. It loves the sun, seeds 

 itself, and wins general admiration. Now, during 

 December, it is flowering away as though we were in 

 July. Everybody falls in love with it ; but nothing 

 spoils it. From France I secured the white variety, 

 which is also perfect. Of other creatures that require 

 annual treatment I can only think of mesembryanthe- 

 mum caulescens and grammanthes gentianoides. The 

 first perishes out of doors in our winters. Therefore 

 I take cuttings in October and plant vigorous-rooted 



