192 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 
loam above the bog. ‘This is like a great Thistle—say 
Carduus eriophorus, on a rather smaller scale—with big 
flowers of a maroon almost verging upon black. Sten- 
anthium robustum is another novelty, to be planted by 
colonies in a similar place—whereas the Sausswrea is 
most effective as an individual. Stenanthiwm is so new 
that I can say little about it. The leaves are long and 
grass-like, and the flower stem, of four to six feet, is said 
to carry huge hearse-plumes of foam, that develop, from 
a greenish shade, through pure white to pink. As for 
the Gayfeathers, I have never seen a Liatris I would will- 
ingly admit to my territories. They are brilliant, with 
their long close spikes of blossom, opening untidily from 
the top, and they all thrive robustly in or near the well- 
drained drier parts of the bog, in deep nutritious loam. 
But in all the varieties, the colour is of too pungent a 
magenta to be anything but a pain. Xerophylhun aspho- 
deloeides is another North American, just what its name 
implies—an Asphodel with greyish grassy leaves and 
spikes of white flowers, far more brilliant of colour. 
Near the bog this does well in deep sandy peat, but I 
have never had much joy or triumph of it; and I positively 
dislike its type, the true Asphodel, a gawky thing with 
spikes of dingy dismal and white, sodden and ghostly 
enough in tone to be, indeed, the phantasmal flower of 
the underworld—though, for that matter, no Heaven 
would be Elysium for me if it grew no prettier flowers 
than Asphodel. 
The Phloxes, suffruticosa and decussata, with all their 
innumerable gorgeous varieties, do not belong to me to 
treat of, although no more glorious denizens of the bog 
could possibly be imagined, and though, in hot dry 
climates, there could be no better chance of enjoying the 
florist’s Phloxes than by using them as bog-plants, in 
damp rich soil. However, I quail from trespassing on 
