256 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



The rose-root depicted on our last Plate XXXV. 

 reminds us that we may not unfrequently meet, on 

 old walls and cottage roofs, with the great fleshy 

 leaf- rosettes of the house-leek, an allied plant. It 

 is in reality a native of the great mountainous 

 districts of Southern and Central Europe, but, as 

 an introduced plant, has taken kindly to these 

 northern isles. From the midst of the mass of 

 succulent foliage rise the flower-stems, headed by 

 their groups of pink and star-shaped blossoms. 

 The generic name, Sempervivum, points to the 

 abundant vitality of the plant under what would 

 certainly appear to be hard conditions, while the 

 specific name, tectorum, indicates that it is a 

 plant to be found on roofs sun-parched spots that 

 would speedily wither up any ordinary plants not 

 accustomed to roasting on a tile in the fiery glow 

 of a July day. " House-like," Maplet tells us, 

 "in Greek is called Acizoon, as you would say, 

 alwaies alive. It is alwaies greene and well liking. 

 It hath a fruitfull leafe in the thicknesse of a man's 

 thumbe : in the end thereof it is sharpe or like a 

 tongue. It is given to drinks, sayth Dioscorides, 

 against the biting of the greatest kinde of spider. 

 It growthe upon walles and tiled housen, and 

 is many ways medicinable." Old country house- 

 wives have great faith in the plant as a remedy 

 for burns or scalds, and this, no doubt, is one 

 reason why we find the plant at home on their 



