THE ROCK GARDEN 133 



may be had for the taking. The well known ground- 

 sell or ivy and the Kennilworth ivy are too well 

 known to need more than a mention and each adapts 

 itself to a home on the rockery. 



For taller growths one may use the orobus with its 

 bright blue pea-shaped flowers in May and June. The 

 prunella has round heads of purple flowers all sum- 

 mer and the rexia or meadow-beauty has bright rosy- 

 purple flowers all summer, and the tunica — a tufted 

 plant with light pink flowers produced all summer — 

 indeed, there is an endless wealth of suitable plants 

 for a rockery and one need not be as restricted in 

 choice as in more formal planting. For tall plants I 

 like the foxglove exceptionally well, as planted singly 

 it silhouettes so beautifully against a background of 

 rock, of greenery or sky ; this also is characteristic of 

 the purple cone flower or rudbeckia. 



If possible, the rockery should contain several hol- 

 low, cup-shaped stones that will afford bathing places 

 for the birds, or bathing and drinking places can be 

 hollowed out in the soil and lined with wire and 

 cemented. "Where the rockery has a high point a little 

 water can be conveyed to this highest point by pipe 

 or hose and so form a miniature cascade to trickle 

 down the face of the rock into a succession of shallow 

 stones, making grateful bathing spots for the birds 

 who will bathe as well in its spray as in the pools 



