154 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



chink in the mortar between two bricks, and main- 

 tained its position throughout the year in broiling 

 sunshine, rough gales, and anything else that was 

 going. Galen declared that the snapdragon was 

 useless in medicine, but, as a valuable set-off to this 

 extraordinary state of things, the plant being hung 

 around a man's neck if we may credit Dioscorides 

 preserved one from all the evils of witchcraft, and 

 gave the wearer a special grace of manner amongst 

 his fellows. The snapdragon is really a native of 

 Southern Europe, but it has been long cultivated in 

 gardens, and has strayed thence so effectually that 

 it has now become entirely naturalised, and takes 

 its place, without question, in our lists of wild plants. 

 The flowers, though ordinarily crimson, vary at 

 times considerably in colour, through various shades 

 of red from almost scarlet to purple, and some being 

 a delicate lemon-yellow or pure white. We grow 

 them by scores on our old wall by planting the 

 young seedlings, when an inch or so in height, in 

 crevices in the mortar, just adding, to give them a 

 start, a little more earth. Many of our plants 

 decline our help, being self-sown. 



Our second wild member of the genus is the 

 A. Orontium, or lesser snapdragon ; it is the central 

 figure in Plate VII. It is an annual, and may 

 occasionally be found in dry, gravelly cornfields in 

 the south of England, growing to a height of a 

 foot or so and very slightly branching. Our plant 



