116 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



is its adaptability; and this is a rule of much value 

 in practice, although it is broken by many exceptions 

 that can be learnt only by experience. 



Every good gardener likes to know the natural 

 conditions in which all his plants grow. But he learns 

 from experience that he will not always succeed by 

 imitating those natural conditions as closely as pos- 

 sible, for very often he will not be able to imitate the 

 most essential of all, and for lack of that, it may be 

 that all his other imitations will be merely mischie- 

 vous. There is, for instance, a little creeping plant 

 called Nierembergia rivularis, whose native home is 

 in marshy places in South America. Most books on 

 gardening, therefore, say that it should be treated as 

 a bog plant; some that it should be planted in shady 

 places. Now it is a plant that comes from a much 

 hotter climate than ours, where, no doubt, it likes 

 all the moisture it can get. But in England it likes 

 all the sun it can get, and has not the same need of 

 moisture. In England, according to the present writer's 

 experience, it will thrive in fairly rich soil, in a dry 

 level place, provided it is watered in the hottest weather; 

 but will not endure the cold of a damp place in winter. 

 This is an instance of a plant with a considerable 

 power of adaptation, which, since we cannot give it 

 all its native conditions, would rather have none of 

 them complete, but prefers that an average should 

 be struck among them; and there are many plants 

 like it. 



We have always to remember that gardening is 



