152 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



while it was charming ; but it never knows when 

 it has done enough, so that we repeatedly had to 

 cut it back, and every little piece that by inad- 

 vertence fell outside the line quickly started afresh. 

 One of the best places for it is along the top of an 

 old wall, the mortar joints finding it a sufficient 

 accommodation, but nothing to spare, and it has 

 then perforce to keep within reasonable bounds. 

 The leaves are small and very succulent, and so 

 biting to the taste that we entirely realise how the 

 plant came to be called the wall-pepper. Bryant, 

 in his " Flora Dietetica," tells us that the leaves in 

 some parts of Europe are often a component of 

 salads. Botanically our little plant is the Sedum 

 acre, the generic name referring to its close adherence 

 to the rock or wall, from the Latin sedeo, I sit, 

 while the specific name refers to its acrid nature. 

 In France it is the pain d'oiseau, or bird's-bread, a 

 by no means happy title. A much happier name 

 for it is an old English local one the golden moss. 

 The common name stone-crop explains itself when 

 we recall the favourite habitat, though the plant 

 may also be found flourishing on dry, sandy banks. 

 We have some ten or eleven species of the genus 

 Sedum amongst our British wild flowers; the S. Rho- 

 diola, or rose-root, the S. Telephium, or orpine, with 

 its noble head of crimson flowers, and the S. ru- 

 pestre, or rock stone-crop, should all find a place in 

 our garden ; the latter is the yellow-flowered plant 



