CHAPTER IX 



BOG AND MARSH GARDENS 



INTIMATELY associated with the true water plants are 

 the numerous children of the bog and marsh land. Not 

 the least beautiful parts of the semi-wild water garden 

 will be found in its moisture-laden margins, in the dark 

 peaty hollows among the trees, and in the clearings 

 amid the copse. Here will flourish our native bog 

 plants, Drosera, Pinguicula, Caltha, Parnassia, Osmunda 

 and Purple Orchis. In the less wild portions, crimson 

 patches of Primula japonica will stain the moss carpet, 

 and by the pathways rosy branches of Dielytra specta- 

 bilis are finely contrasted with a glossy background of 

 Rhododendron leafage. Somewhere among the tree 

 shadows, a special corner will be found, where in 

 splendid isolation, clumps of the Mocassin flower 

 (Cypripedium spectabile) may throw up their gorgeous 

 slippered blooms. And so gradually, the flower pro- 

 cession passes from water to bog, from bog to wood- 

 land, from woodland to meadow and garden border, 

 changing as the various stages are traversed, a complete 

 and beautiful revelation of Nature's adaptability and 

 resource. 



Near the margins of fair-sized pools and along the 

 sides of valley streams, natural bog gardens may be 

 made with little trouble. In fact, nothing much is 

 needful in the way of preparation beyond the con- 

 struction of safe and convenient pathways, and the 

 clearing away of the weeds and coarse herbage which 



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