122 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 



Moreover, in the naturally silted bog there will pro- 

 bably be already that handsome groundwork of great 

 tussocks of Sedge or stretches of Reed or Rush that 

 will secure the unity and cohesion of the whole place, 

 while at the same time they will make a distinct and 

 easy separation between any such group of flowering 

 plants as one may wish to see undisturbed by the view 

 of the group that is next to follow. 



It will be greatly to the advantage of a portion of 

 this region if there is a copse-like growth of something 

 that will give summer shade ; for many are the lovely 

 plants that are not exactly marsh plants, but that like 

 ground that is always cool and rather moist. In the 

 wettest of this would be a plantation of Primula 

 denticulata, a grand plant indeed when grown in 

 long stretches in damp ground at the edge of a 

 hazel copse, when its luscious leaves and round 

 heads of lilac flower are seen quite at their best. 

 Several others of the Asiatic Primroses are also 

 happiest in such a place. Next to it, and only 

 divided by some clumps of Lady Fern, would be 

 the equally wet-loving P. sikkimensis, and then a 

 further drift of P. japonica. 



The two latter kinds come easily from seed ; P. 

 denticulata increases so fast and divides so well that 

 there is no need to grow it from seed. The type 

 colour of P.japonica y a crimson inclining to magenta, 

 is unpleasant to my eye and to that of many others, 

 but seedlings of a much better, though quite as bright 

 a colour, have been obtained, and also a pretty low- 

 toned white, with many intermediate pinkish shades. 



