SMALL ROCK-GARDENS 103 



every spring I used to go on purpose to visit it. And 

 one day, to my great delight, I found among it one 

 plant of a mucli deeper colour, quite a pretty and 

 desirable variety from the type, that has proved a good 

 garden plant. My friend Mr. George Paul, after grow- 

 ing it for a season, thought so well of it that he took it 

 to a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, where 

 he received for it a notice of commendation ; this, with 

 kindly courtesy, he was good enough to pass on to me, 

 having given my name to the variety. The Cuckoo- 

 flower has a curious way of increasing by dropping its 

 leaflets ; they root at the base, and it is easy to make 

 a panful of cuttings in this way, dibbling in the leaf- 

 lets, and pretty to see the spruce little plants that soon 

 grow from them. It also makes little plants, with 

 roots and all complete, in the axils of the leaves on 

 the lower part of the flower-stems after the bloom is 

 over. These will drop off* when mature, but as a good 

 many perish under the natural conditions of my dry 

 garden, I look out for them as soon as the roots are 

 formed and grow them on in boxes till some wet day 

 in July or August, when they can be safely planted 

 out. 



There is a good group of this pretty plant at the 

 cooler end of my small rock-garden, where a bit of 

 dwarf dry- walling supports the raised sides. The wall- 

 ing is here only a foot high, and is clothed with the 

 little creeping Sandwort (Arenaria halearica). The two 

 plants together make a pretty picture ; the Sandwort 



