1877. ] 
THE STONEOROP. 
203 
for very want of water. The Wall Rue among Ferns, and the Wallflower 
among flowering plants, have each an existence equally - wonderful, living, as it 
were, without the ordinary means to sustain life; and this very oddity makes 
succulent plants so very useful, growing, as they do, where nothing else could live. 
In the shabbiest samples of rockwork, where a barrowful of stones adorns the four 
or five square yards of the cottager’s flower-garden fronting the street, this truly 
dwarf Alpine will live, thrive, and extend itself, so that when in flower it will be 
all alive with its dense mass of yellow, and when out of flower, its lively green 
will remain ornamental all through the winter. I found the purple Sedum on 
low stone walls near Sir John Barrow’s monument at Ulverstone, but only in 
small patches. It bore transplanting well, and grew freely in Manchester as an 
edging alongside of a sandstone flag, until it was destroyed by hot water and 
soda in the process of washing the steps and stonework. Although curious and 
rare as a botanical specimen, it is by no means more beautiful than the yellow 
one, and it might be difficult to get it in bulk for any practical purpose, whereas 
the “ Dovedale moss ” meets all emergencies, and is to be had by the summer 
tourist of that ilk, with no other cost than the carrying it away. As it is also 
to be found in cottage gardens everywhere, I need only remark that it is easily 
propagated by its leaves in dry sand, and it is not likely to suffer from dryness, 
but like most succulents it is apt to damp off when exposed to wet. 
A window-sill, however high, is just the place for the Stonecrop. Shelter is 
out of the question. A little rich mud and sand placed on the stone coping of 
the 3 ’’ard walls in the town dwellings, will soon cover the space allotted to it; 
and it will gladden the eyes of the confirmed invalid to be able to see this humble 
evergreen herb covered once a year with a golden blossom. I saw some fine 
plants in flower recently, in a stonemason’s yard, high up in a window-sill. The 
plant is not well adapted for pot-culture, but as its name implies, seems to grow 
or cro2'> out of the stone. It exposes no slender foliage to the stormy wind, and 
fills its watery sacs with the winter and spring rains, biding its time to flower and 
seed until the sun has warmed the summer air, when it peeps out modestly. 
The bedding-out of exotic succulents seems all the rage, but the grotesque 
forms of some kinds appear out of harmony with their surroundings. There is, how¬ 
ever, certainly a place for the Stonecrop, and that not on the heap of stones with the 
nickname of “ rock,” but on some honest ledge, where a free-stone flag can find it 
a resting place. In the case of real rockwork, this plant will be invaluable, 
sticking, as it well can do, to the slanting face of a large stone in one place, and 
in another joining two or more pieces by hiding the junction, thereby rendering 
the apparent size of the block of stone double what it really is. What I mean by 
the unfitness of the Stonecrop for paltry bits of rockwork is, that the plant should 
always be a rider mounted on a stone of some size, just as if it were a parasite 
on the same. 
Plants in town gardens and even in country gardens require a good deal of 
looking after, and when it comes to be window-gardening there is watering and 
