Numerous Early Comers 



king, though no more yellow than the paper of the typical 

 bun-bag, and were it not a rarity and collected by myself 

 in happy hunting-grounds I should not greatly care if it 

 miffed itself away as under former treatment. But some 

 of them do not like overhead watering in hot weather, so 

 I tried experiments in a corner of this bed to see whether 

 I could keep it from burning up so quickly by mixing 

 sand, my favourite birdcage variety, with the chips and 

 leaf soil. Plants loved it and grew wondrously, but wore 

 it out rather quickly, and still it needed watering oftener 

 than I liked. The next new bed was made on the opposite 

 side of the path, and planned to hold a rather richer com- 

 post of leaf soil, peat and sand, with occasional surfacings, 

 admixtures, or even unadulterated patches of granite chips : 

 but the most important innovation was a leaden pipe with 

 a funnel-shaped mouth at one end to receive water, and 

 two rows of holes bored on the under surface at intervals 

 of 3 inches. This is buried in the bed at a depth of 6 to 8 

 inches according to the slope of the bed, and the funnel 

 comes to the surface and is covered with a flat stone, that can 

 be easily lifted off when it is wished to pour a can or two 

 of water in. We arranged the fall of the pipe so that the 

 water ran out fairly evenly from all the holes, and found it 

 needed to be very slightly lower at the end farthest from 

 the mouth. This bed is now nearly two years old, and 

 has been great fun. In the richer peaty end Primula 

 pedemontana and P. Bowlesii, the latter a hybrid from 

 P. pedemontana and P. viscosa, have recovered their strength 

 after the shock of being collected when in full flower, and 

 flowered well this Spring. Astrantia minor, said to be 

 impossible in England, has done well and given me a 

 107 



