172 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 
CHAPTER [IX 
Che Greater Bog-Plants 
Or the shrub-Spiraeas I will not speak here—at least not 
of the big species such as ariaefolia. And Aruncus has 
been treated of ‘in another place.” But if you want 
gigantic, tropical vegetation for the rich rough uplands 
and outskirts of your bog, you cannot do better than turn 
to the gorgeous, herbaceous Spiraeas. Of all these I would 
say that if your space will possibly allow, they will look 
better in wide tracts and colonies than as _ isolated 
specimens. In point of growth, luxuriant and rich as 
they are, they do not run at the root or make themselves 
a nuisance, and can therefore be admitted without scruple 
even to the smallest territories. But nothing can beat 
the effect of a broad sweep of palmata or gigantea, and, 
where possible, they should certainly be planted with a 
lavish hand. I conceive of a broad, shallow dip between 
two wooded hills, through which, in lake and marsh, 
shall meander a little stream, while above, far up on 
either side, rise sheltering forests. Here, in the open 
space of this glen shall be towering masses of the finer 
bamboos, clumps of Thalictrum aquilegifolium, waving 
copses of the big Lilies—awratum, pardalinum, tigrinum, 
giganteum. And here, too, amid belts of the Siberian 
Iris—there will not be blazing sun-heat enough for Jris 
Kaempferi in this wood-garden of mine—there shall be 
jungles of the rosy herbaceous Spiraeas. For these, one 
