PART L] CULTURAL 51 



small scale, and some graceful deciduous plants and shrubs 

 like Wistaria, which are pretty grown in that way. Now, this 

 curious and ancient way of growing plants, which seems so 

 strange and new to many of us, is undoubtedly based on facts 

 of Nature, and has its origin in the habits of plants on the high 

 mountains often starved and dwarfed. We may see such 

 dwarf and often distorted trees and shrubs on high rocks or 

 mountains, or otherwise starved out of their natural vigour and 

 habit by unnatural exposure, cold, or drought. We see it in 

 the Alps occasionally, and even in the stately cedars of Lebanon 

 and Atlas we see them in many different shapes, dwarf and 

 stunted, and yet always beautiful in form. This being so, the 

 true place for these quaint shrubs is the rock-garden, where 

 they might be grouped together near a little streamlet on a 

 modest bank of rocks. They are arranged in this way prettily 

 at Warnham Court, and where rocks and shrubs are 

 associated with the true alpine plants (as I think they should 

 always be where there is room enough), there these quaint 

 little trees come in very well. 



Mr Alfred Parsons writes : " The Japanese dwarf trees in 

 their gardens, which are essentially rock-gardens, are planted 

 among stones, which probably helps to stunt their growth, but 

 besides this, they are most carefully trimmed to keep them to 

 the desired size and shape sometimes this form is quite stiff 

 and symmetrical, especially in the case of Azalea bushes ; more 

 often it is a miniature of the characteristic shape of the tree 

 in Nature under similar conditions, or a suggestion of some 

 celebrated tree of the kind grown." 



THE ALPINE MARSH-GARDEN. 



In the great mountain regions, marshy ground and boggy 

 places are frequent, and some of the fairest of the mountain's 

 flowers adorn them, and may only be well grown in like condi- 

 tions, happily easy to imitate. Therefore, while water as a 

 separate element is not a necessity of even a noble rock-garde^ 

 some little place for marsh plants is needed, if we are to see the 

 beauty in our gardens of many singularly pretty and some 

 brilliant plants. 



