Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



the common cat-mint, which on the Sussex 

 chalk grows into a respectable shrub, here 

 creeps along the ground with great humility ; 

 and the helianthemum behaves in like fashion, 

 and looks anything but happy. Another 

 summer will probably sweep them all away. 

 It is, I think, not so much a matter of climate 

 as of soil. In dry weather the earth here cakes 

 almost to the consistency of stone, and these 

 rock-plants may be unable to extract from it 

 the moisture they require. So, if one is to 

 have a rock garden, one must probably fall 

 back for its denizens on such succulent plants 

 as cacti, which contain their own supply of 

 water within themselves. With these and 

 aloes, and such hanging things as heliotrope 

 and ivy-leafed geranium and the "Pride of 

 Madeira " one may clothe one's rocks, and try 

 to forget that one is beaten. I have this year 

 blasted out of the natural rock a deep path, 

 with sloping walls six feet high, which will be 

 eminently fitted for the display of such flowers ; 

 but with all their beauty they will not equal in 

 interest- the spring glory of the English rock- 

 garden. 



Yet perhaps with our wealth of roses, 



i6S 



