96 GARDENS PAST AND PRESENT 



allies, enjoy the shelter and dryness of the vertical 

 position in winter ; while the roots find a long 

 run in their passage through the soil upon which 

 the stones are bedded, together with an unfailing 

 supply of moisture stored up in and beneath the 

 stones themselves. The conditions are thus as 

 nearly as we can make them like those of their 

 native habitats; and they are less liable to suc- 

 cumb to the treacheries of our variable climate. 

 Not only Alpines, but plants of warmer latitudes, 

 and consequently of somewhat tender constitution, 

 such as the cistuses of southern Europe and some 

 of the New Zealand veronicas, often short-lived in 

 the richer soil of a shrubbery border, are here 

 safe often for a length of time. They literally 

 set their backs to the wall, and fight against ad- 

 verse conditions. Above all these advantages, the 

 picturesque effect of a well-planted wall stands out 

 pre-eminently. Its charm is almost indefinable, 

 but it combines beauty and strength and homely 

 dignity in a way which suggests many a worthy 

 lesson. 



Planting, however, is not everything; for it 

 may be said without exaggeration that in wall 

 gardening, beyond most other aspects of the art, 

 11 the best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft 

 agley." Experience teaches that one plant will 

 take kindly to the position and fit into its niche 

 with utmost content; another, seemingly equally 

 suitable, may be tried again and again, but coax- 

 ing is all in vain ; and yet another, some tall 

 foxglove or massive silvery-leaved mullein, which 

 we should never have dreamed of inviting to take 



