48 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 
deep soil, in which they by no means object to a good 
deal of moisture if the drainage be good. Add to this 
a sheltered glen or corner, where spiteful spring winds 
cannot assault and hurt the young, upshooting growths, 
and your Bamboos will grow as in Japan. ‘They are, 
indeed, damp-climate plants, and wild-garden plants, 
essentially ; impatient of control, and far too glorious to 
be broken in. Their charm is their high, imperious 
grace. Group them up some glen in majestic clumps, 
and you will have your reward. With me they thrive in 
garden and in wood, but in the heavier rainfall of the 
Lakes they develop tropically, and make great jungles 
in the misty, steaming Himalya climate at the northern 
end of Windermere. Above all, though, let no one 
think that by planting Bamboos in a dense, serried mass, 
and making little wobbling walks between them with 
blocks of white stone, you can produce anything in any 
way fit to be called a Japanese Garden. In the real 
Japanese garden the Bamboo hardly figures at all, if 
ever, its whole growth and character being so alien to 
the scheme required. And in no part of England, 
remember, will there be any difficulty or danger about 
cultivating the hardy Bamboos. They are as robust as 
brambles, and their only fault is their excessive vigour. 
Of course there are innumerable greenhouse kinds in China 
and the Tropics. Of these, naturally, I make no men- 
tion. Let us hope it is one of these that is the agent of 
a certain peculiarly appalling Chinese torture. 
