120 WOOD AND GARDEN 



twelve paces there are Ferns, Polypody and Harts- 

 tongue, and a few Adiantum nigrum, with here and 

 there a Welsh Poppy. There is a clump of the wild 

 Stitchwort that came by itself, and is so pretty that I 

 leave it. At the foot of the wall are the same, but 

 more of the Hartstongue ; and here it grows best, for 

 not only is the place cooler, but I gave it some loamy 

 soil, which it loves. Farther along the Hartstongue 

 gives place to the wild Iris (7. fcetidissima), a good long 

 stretch of it. Nothing, to my mind, looks better than 

 these two plants at the base of a wall on the cool side. 

 In the upper part of the wall are various Ferns, and 

 that interesting plant. Wall Pennywort (Cotyledon Um- 

 bilicus). It is a native plant, but not found in this 

 neighbourhood ; I brought it from Cornwall, where it 

 is so plentiful in the chinks of the granite stone-fences. 

 It sows itself and grows afresh year after year, though I 

 always fear to lose it in one of our dry summers. Next 

 comes the common London Pride, which I think quite 

 the most beautiful of the Saxifrages of this section. If 

 it was a rare thing, what a fuss we should make about 

 it ! The place is a little dry for it, but all the same, 

 it makes a handsome spreading tuft hanging over the 

 face of the wall. When its pink cloud of bloom is at 

 its best, I always think it the prettiest thing in the 

 garden. Then there is the Yellow Everlasting (Gna- 

 phalium orientale), a fine plant for the upper edge of 

 the wall, and even better on the sunny side, and the 

 white form of Campanula ccespitosa, with its crowd of 



