Part I. 



RUIN AND WALL GARDENS. 



7>Z 



Fig 29 



'* Here stood a shattered arcliway gay with flowefs. 

 And here had fallen a great part of a tower — > 

 Whole, like a crag that tumbles from a cliff, 

 And like a crag was gay with wilding flowers ; 

 And high above a piece of turret stairs. 

 Worn by the feet that now were silent, wound 

 Bare to the sun" — 



is a true picture from Tennyson's ' Idylls ' of the plant-life on 

 many old ruins ; and on many comparatively new structures we 

 see flowers and ferns quite at home. Hundreds of plants that 

 are treated to the most carefully prepared soil grow naturally 

 on the barest and most arid surfaces. This fact must not be 

 supposed to be contradictory of previous statements, as to the 

 necessity of giving alpine plants a suitable material to root into ; 

 it is the open loose texture of the ordinary rockwork, or its solidly 

 cemented masses, into which the plants cannot root, that does 

 the mischief 



It is not without considerable observation of the capabilities 

 of walls, even walls in good repair, to grow numerous rare and 

 pretty plants, and, moreover, keep them in perpetual health with- 

 out trouble, that I recommend everybody who takes an interest 

 in the matter to have the fullest confidence in growing them 

 easily in this way. Most of those who are blessed with gardens 

 have usually a little wall surface at their disposal ; and to all 

 such I can name some plants that will grow thereon better 

 than in the best soil. A mossy old wall, or an old ruin, would 



D 



