Dieffenbachia with a sunburned leaf. These plants likes as much light as they can get without actually having the sun shine directly on it, except maybe very early AM or late PM. It's going to take a long time to dry out in that pot, which could give it root rot. Do you have a smaller pot? If that's the pot you found it in, that may be why it (they) wasn't doing well and discarded. It also looks like the 2nd one may have lost its' variegation, therefore its' attractiveness in the eye of the previous beholder.

add the photos into this post .. on a REPLY .... is that soil.. or potting medium??? if its soil.. that is why the roots probably rotted off ... as purp suggests in the other post ....potting medias most important function.. is water management .... and old media can wear out also ... ken

As Leftwood said, very difficult to tell. I do think there might be some Artemisia schmidtiana (silver mound) in there, but I'm not sure. Instead of trying to choose the same plants as the picture, I would suggest that you go to the library, a bookstore, or a home improvement store and look at books and/or magazines with rock garden pictures--they will list the plants in the garden, and often will have a list somewhere in the book detailing zone, sun and moisture requirements.

Thank you ever so much to everyone for your help. This is my first post and I shall definitely be using this site more. I currently live in Mozambique so things like fertiliser and tomato cages are simply not available. I will give them some cow manure though and try to fashion some kind of supports from tree branches. The fact I cannot find anything to buy sure does keep the cost of inputs down though!