CHAPTER II 



THE low-growing plants which in England 

 would almost be used for carpet-bedding 

 here grow rather higher and more straggling. I 

 planted eight beds of Lithospennum prostratwn, 

 7 feet by 5, being three-cornered in form, which in 

 spring are eight masses of gentian blue. I started 

 them by putting in cuttings i foot apart, filling in 

 between with other small growing subjects, Aubrie- 

 tias, etc., which were intended to flower whilst the 

 Lithospermums were growing and spreading. This 

 they did, and when I dragged out these stopgaps, 

 the Lithospermums were quite nice little plants, 

 and the following summer flowered well, touching 

 each other everywhere. The only alternative to 

 this plan of striking cuttings where they were to 

 grow would have been to have started them in 

 hundreds of tiny pots, which I could not have 

 looked after properly. Although hardy enough 

 to propagate in outdoor beds, still, some subjects 

 would not lift when struck, especially the Litho- 

 spermum, which is over-particular about its long 



