DRY WALLING 95 



delight to choose for themselves in such positions 

 and from whence they spread into little tufted colo- 

 nies at will. In just such a spot in my own 

 garden, at the foot of a retaining wall on a landing 

 at the top of some stone steps, a little drift of 

 winter flowering cyclamens has been established 

 which with their delicately marbled leaves and 

 rosy flowers make a bright little picture from Janu- 

 ary onwards. 



Such, in outline, are some of the rules by which 

 good dry-walling is regulated ; but the chief ex- 

 ponent of the subject has written a charming and 

 most illuminating book,* which should be in the 

 hands of every garden-lover, as it clearly explains 

 the whole gist of the matter, with all details which 

 can only be lightly touched upon here. 



There are manifold reasons why dry-walling 

 should possess a fascination peculiarly its own. 

 To begin with, it gives opportunity for something 

 akin to wild gardening within the precincts of the 

 garden itself, for while the method follows Nature's 

 own informal leading, the essential conditions of 

 the position make for a certain restraint which 

 is in accord with garden fitness and order. The 

 growth of wall plants, however spreading, is kept 

 more or less within due bounds. Some Alpine 

 plants for which the rock garden proves unsuit- 

 able may also on occasion be induced to make a 

 home on a prepared wall of the kind described, 

 for two reasons the tufts of leaves, which are often 

 woolly or hairy, like those of ramondia and its 



* "Wall and Water Gardens." By Gertrude Jekyll. 

 "Country Life" Library. 



