68 ROCK GARDENING 



cheapness of them is astonishing, compared with nursery-grown 

 plants. The saving may be anywhere from 100 to 500 per cent. 



Suppose, now, you have a bit of rocky woodland that contains 

 few wild flowers because picknickers have taken them, or cattle 

 have been allowed there. For fifteen dollars you could have one 

 thousand plants of dog's tooth violets, or Dutchman's breeches, or 

 mandrakes, or wood sorrel, or the dainty little alum root. For 

 twenty dollars you could have one thousand plants of hepatica, 

 or maidenhair fern, or false Solomon's seal, or Thalictrum Cornuti, 

 or the violet wood sorrel. For thirty dollars you could have 

 one thousand clumps of spring beauty, or one thousand trilliums. 

 Even if the plants were fairly common in your neighbourhood it 

 would be impossible, in some cases, for you to collect the plants as 

 cheaply as this. 



Or, if you have rocks exposed to full sunshine there is still a 

 good choice, even in a climate that is hot and dry in summer. For 

 three dollars you could have two hundred hardy cacti. (No 

 one would want one thousand cacti, because they are too sug- 

 gestive of the desert.) There are several stonecrops or sedums 

 which will grow in a pinch of soil on rocks that are so hot you 

 can hardly touch your hands to them. For ten dollars you can 

 have one thousand Sedum album. For twenty dollars you can 

 have one thousand Sedum ternatum, or bloodroot, or moss pink, 

 or bird's foot violet. For twenty-five dollars you can have 

 one thousand scarlet columbine, wild blue phlox, pine barren 

 sandwort, or even American bluebells (Mertensia Virginica). For 

 three or four cents each you can get the dwarf early flags (Iris 

 cristata and verna), bluets, and the thyme-leaved speedwell. 



Even in the winter we can make some of the rocky land beauti- 

 ful, at least when the ground is not covered with snow, by using 



