CHAPTER X 

 THE STREAM-GARDEN AND MARSH POOLS 



WHERE there is a stream passing through the out- 

 skirts of a garden, there will be a happy prospect 

 of delightful ways of arranging and enjoying the 

 beautiful plants that love wet places. Even where 

 there are no natural advantages of pictorial environ- 

 ment, given a little sinking of the level and the least 

 trickle of water, with a simple and clever arrange- 

 ment of bold groups of suitable plants, a pretty 

 stream-picture may be made, as is seen by the illus- 

 tration of the water-garden in a good nursery near 

 London. 



But where there is a rather wider and more copious 

 stream, rippling merrily over its shallow bed, there 

 are even wider possibilities. The banks of running 

 water where the lovely Water Forget-me-not grows 

 are often swampy, and the path that is to be carried 

 near one of them may probably want some such treat- 

 ment as is recommended in the early part of the 

 chapter on Water Margins. When a water-garden is 

 being prepared by the side of any such stream, the 

 course of the path may well be varied by running first 

 close beside the water and then retreating a yard or two 



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