The blossoms of the Red Valerian on the wall are bright crimson, and they grow in rows on small stems which spring from a stout stalk a foot or two in height.  Each blossom of five petals forms a little tube or corolla.  The base or foot of each little tube appears as a point on the under side of the flower stem; the Red Valerian, like the Violet, is a spurred flower.

The leaves are long and pointed, and they grow in pairs, on opposite sides of the stalk.  Sometimes the edges of the leaves are quite smooth; sometimes they are serrated, or toothed, like the edge of a saw.  If we pulled a plant of Red Valerian from the wall we should find the roots very long and branching; they need to be so, for the plant often grows on rocks and other places where it is exposed to wind.  If the roots had not a firm hold the tall stems laden with blossoms might be blown down.

The Red Valerian flowers all through the summer.  Its clusters of crimson flowers are as great an ornament to the old wall as were the wallflowers in May.

Now let us go down the steps into the foldyard; there is a wall on either side of us as we descend.  The wall which faces the north is nearly always in shadow, and there are ferns growing but of it between the stones.  One of these is a beautiful Hartstongue fern, with large and shining leaves.  We said just now, however, that ferns have no flowers, so we will turn to something that grows on the wall opposite.

This is the ivy-leaved Toadflax.  It grows on walls and rocks, as the Red Valerian does, but it is a very different plant in appearance.  The stems of the Red Valerian are tall and upright; those of the Toadflax are slender and drooping.  There is a large mass of it on the side of the wall, and we find that the root is at the highest point of the whole mass.  The stems with the flowers and leaves hang down below the root; it is a trailing plant.

There are, however, other roots clinging to the wall here and there below the main root.  The plant, like several others, is able to throw out fresh roots from the joints of its stems, and these give it a firmer hold.

The flowers are small, and their colour is a pale lilac-blue with a bright yellow spot in the centre.  These flowers too are spurred.  The leaves are smooth and thick—­what is called fleshy.  They are divided into five lobes or divisions, and are not unlike an ivy-leaf in shape.  When we turn a leaf or two over we see that the under side of some is dark purple.

[Illustration:  Ivy-leaved toadflax.]

This little plant is usually said to prefer a damp situation, and to blossom from May till October.  This wall beside the steps is certainly rather damp, for the moisture from the garden above soaks down to it.  In my own garden, however, the ivy-leaved Toadflax grows on some very dry old walls, and I have found it in flower in the middle of December.

Neither the Toadflax nor the Red Valerian are really natives of England.  They were brought to our country many hundreds of years ago.  They have spread so much that they have now become wildflowers.  In the same way many others of our wild flowers were once unknown in England.