My Rock Garden 



Dog Violet, whatever people might say to the contrary. I 

 have also a starch-blue one from Wisley that is either a form 

 of it or some closely allied one. These banks are packed 

 with plants, but it would take a whole volume to mention 

 half of them, so we must move on and by turning to the 

 right can avoid walking into the pool, and rejoin the main 

 path. 



We pass a collection of naturally dwarf trees and shrubs, 

 such as the pygmy forms of the Scots Pine and Spruce, 

 several Euonymous japonicus, and a Box or two of dwarf 

 habits. Ligustrum japonicum, var. coriaceum, and its sub- 

 variety involutum have grown into fine specimens, and 

 look wonderfully like dwarf Camellias. But the gems of 

 this corner are a dwarf Cedar of Lebanon, a variety 

 known as Comte de Dijon, and two of the small form of 

 Irish Juniper that I have seen in a catalogue as /. communis 

 hibernica compressa nana. The dwarf Willows, Salix re- 

 ticulata, S. herbacea, and the larger S. lanata are also here, 

 and each has a decided character of its own. The two first 

 are the lowliest of British shrubs, for although reticulata's 

 leaves are large and round, and with their footstalks stand 

 up two inches or more from the ground and the curious 

 brownish catkins, which closely resemble the Plantain- 

 heads that children play the game of Soldiers with, over- 

 top the leaves, yet the woody trunk of this minute tree 

 lies flat upon the ground, however aged and thick it may 

 be. Herbacea has very small leaves and thin twigs that 

 never rise up for more than an inch or two, while the 

 stem prefers to bury itself in the ground after the manner 

 of a root. Lanata should make a handsome bush of 

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