630 Sedum Sieboldl. 



Siebold/ in the open border, I wish to state that it is now, 

 October 20th, in as great perfection, in my garden, as could be 

 desired, furnishing it with a little plot of rosy bloom, when all 

 hardy and low-growing perennials, besides itself, are out of 

 flower. 



Plants of humble growth, and those which creep or trail 

 upon the ground, are never seen to much advantage when 

 merely dotting or starring rockwork, a use for which it is cus- 

 tomary to recommend them. It is when spreading over mini- 

 ature hills, or creeping down the steeps of tiny ravines, after 

 nature's own fashion, that they surprise the eye with a blaze of 

 beauty surpassing, if possible, that which is cast upon moun- 

 tains by a glorious sunset. It is then, too, that they, though out 

 of flower, can give us superior delight, if the artist can make 

 good use of the various shades of green and grey which they 

 afford him. A little knoll of grass-green saxifrage, and a mon- 

 ticule of variegated stonecrop (the latter appearing as if gilded 

 with the rays of the setting sun, and the former resembling a 

 rich pasture in May), are of themselves beautiful objects in the 

 month of March ; but when forming with others a scene, they 

 become doubly interesting, even at that bleak time of the year, 

 for there are then, for relief, the darker greens of speedwells, 

 the grey, almost the white, foliage of mouse-ear chickweed, the 

 grey-green of ^lyssum saxatile, the snow-white flowers of the 

 alpine rock-cress, the pink bloom of Evlca. carnea, and, to 

 darken nooks and dells, our native heaths and periwinkle. 



We frequently witness how much elegance and beauty can 

 be produced out of the commonest materials, when arranged by 

 the dexterous hand of a woman of taste; and the most neglected 

 moor plants of our own country need but the same mind to 

 direct their arrangement, in order to become surpassingly beau- 

 tiful. The truth of this will be evident to any one who, alive to 

 the beauties of nature, has seen mountain or moorland bright- 

 ened in one spot by the numerous flowers of procumbent bed- 

 straw, and glowing in another with wild thyme or with jErica 

 cinerea ; but more strikingly true will the observation appear to 

 him who in his rambles may have been fortunate enough to find 

 large spaces 



" gleaming with purple and gold ; " 



notwithstanding that imperial conjunction of colours be made by 

 nothing more than valueless heaths and dwarf whins. 



Forton Cottage, near Lancaster, 

 Oct. 2. 1842. 



