290 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



our part ; perhaps it will, and perhaps it will not. 

 Its older English name of thorow-wax is in obvious 

 allusion to the way in which the stems come through 

 the leaves. It is a plant that has somehow, prob- 

 ably with corn, come to us from Southern Europe. 

 The other plant on the Plate is the pearly cudweed, 

 one of our rather numerous species of British cud- 

 weeds ; our English representatives of the " ever- 

 lastings " that are imported so largely into England 

 from South Africa and elsewhere. Its pearly- white, 

 crisp-looking flowers and very grey stems give it a 

 distinct character that makes it a very welcome 

 feature in one's rock-garden, from its contrast in 

 colour with its surroundings. 



" I passed by his garden, and saw the wild briar, 

 The thorn, and the thistle, grow higher and higher." 



These lines linger in our memory from the long, 

 bygone school-days, but who it was who was pass- 

 ing that way, or whose garden he passed, we fail to 

 remember. They somewhat happily describe our 

 own garden, and the poet-moralist, we remember 

 from the general drift of his remarks, desires us to 

 be shocked at such a state of things. It is, we 

 trust, not perversity on our part, but, as the lines 

 have suddenly come back to our memory, we are 

 glad to be reminded by them that a picturesque 

 trail of dog-rose, a white-thorn, a black-thorn, a 

 noble well-grown spear-plume, or a grand plant 



