Crossword-Solution: STONECROPS 10 letters, 1 clue 🏆 scrabble score: 14

Wild-flowers in plenty brighten the edges of the road--stonecrops, cornflowers, purple 'lady's fingers,' and many others; but wedged as we are in our not too comfortable calèche, to get out and pluck them is impossible.

All plants of very arid soils--for example, our common English stonecrops--tend to be thick, jointed, and succulent; the distinction between stem and leaves tends to disappear; and the whole weed, accustomed at times to long drought, acquires the habit of drinking in water greedily at its rootlets after every rain, and storing it away for future use in its thick, sponge-like, and water-tight tissues.

These two Stonecrops and a variegated variety are some of the very few hardy plants which slugs do not graze; at any rate, it is so with me; neither do other pests attack them, but the humble bees literally cover their flowers the whole day long at times.

Where none is readily obtainable, one can be simulated by ingeniously combining a few small ones and concealing the joints by the planting of such things as stonecrops in earth--which, save in rare cases of sheer necessity, is always used in the construction of a rock garden in place of mortar.

All the stonecrops, the house leeks, _Arabis albida_, red valerian (_Centranthus ruber_), aubrietia, _Alyssum saxatile_, snapdragon, wallflower (_Cheiranthus Cheiri_), Kenilworth ivy, _Viola tricolor_, _Dianthus plumarius_, and _Dianthus deltoides_ are all very serviceable.