SEPTEMBER 121 



delicate little white bells rising in June, from the 

 neatest fohage of tender but lively green. Then follow 

 deep-hanging curtains of YeUow Alyssum and of hybrid 

 rock Pinks. The older plants of Alyssum are nearly 

 worn out, but there are plenty of promismg yoimg seed- 

 lings in the lower joints. 



Throughout the waU there are patches of Polypody 

 Fern, one of the best of cool waU-plants, its creeping 

 root-stock always feeling its way along the joints, and 

 steadily furnishing the wall with more and more of its 

 neat fronds ; it is all the more valuable for being at its 

 best in early winter, when so few ferns are to be seen. 

 Every year, in some bare places, I sow a little seed of 

 Erinus alpinus, always trying for places where it will 

 follow some other kind of plant, such as a place where 

 rock Pink or Alyssum has been. All plants are the better 

 for this sort of change. In the seven years that the 

 wall has stood, the stones have become weathered, and 

 the greater part of the north side, wherever the stone 

 work shows, it is hoary with mosses, and looks as if 

 it might have been standing for a hundred years. 



The sunny side is nearly clear of moss, and I have 

 planted very few things in its face, because the narrow 

 border at its foot is so precious for shrubs and plants 

 that hke a warm, sheltered place. Here are several 

 Choisyas and Sweet Verbenas, also Uscallonia, Stuartia, 

 and Styrax, and a long straggHng group of some very 

 fine Pentstemons. In one space that was fairly clear 

 I planted a bit of Hyssop, an old sweet herb whose 



