OF SHRUBS AND THEIR PLACING 13 | 
I am establishing a wild cliff-garden, which, when fairly 
started, will be a wonderful sight of natural beauty. 
Of the Potentillas there are two or three that are 
genuine shrubs, and admirably fitted for the rock-garden. 
Of front-rank among these comes our own native, Poten- 
tilla fruticosa, a plant curiously rare, and yet curiously 
abundant where it occurs. Thus you will find it above 
the High Force in Teesdale, that gardener’s Paradise, 
where the botanist grows crazy for Viola arenaria and 
Arenaria uliginosa, and the gardener’s bones are melted 
within him by the ecstasy of Gentiana verna and spread- 
ing miles of purple pansy. On either side the river, in 
the sand, grows Potentilla fruticosa, a close, woody, wiry 
shrub of two to three-foot height, covered all over with 
abundance of big, brilliant yellow flowers. This treasure 
is invaluable for any garden, and absolutely easy in any 
soil. The only thing it requires is to be cut over, hard, if 
ever it shows signs of becoming leggy. It will break out 
anew from below, and re-form into a compact bush. 
Very similar to this again is Potentilla floribunda—in- 
deed hardly, to me, distinguishable, unless its flowers are 
a little smaller. P. Salesowt is a newcomer, reported to 
have whitish flowers. So far I only find it a small shrub 
of rather ugly leaf and growth. ‘The sulphur-blooming 
dwarf Potentilla Friedrichseni I have not yet tried, though, 
on the whole, I hear it well reported of. But the triumph 
of the race is Potentilla nitida—though I don’t know if 
I can fairly call this a shrub, seeing that its height is 
only about two inches at the very most. Potentilla nitida 
lives in the Alps of Tyrol and North Italy, in the higher, 
sunny moraine- and débris-slopes — a minute, woody 
trailer, with cloverish leaves, of a pure grey, brilliantly 
silver on the reverse, and very large flowers of a rich 
cherry pink, differing in depth of colour in different plants. 
If the ordinary rosy type were not so beautiful, the snowy- 
