84 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



plants, it is very unfavourable to others. The tall 

 campanulas of all sorts are quite a failure; yet the 

 platycodons, so nearly allied to the campanulas, do 

 well ; and all the low-growing campanulas, many of 

 which are down plants, are also very bright and 

 full of flower. The gentians are all rather stunted 

 in growth ; the G. asclepiadea, which is sometimes 

 quite four feet high here, does not in a dry year 

 exceed two feet, and I am surprised that it should 

 suffer at all from drought, for in its native Swiss 

 habitats it is often found in places exposed to the 

 full sun and in shallow soils. I am not surprised 

 that the saxifrages suffer, for most of them are lovers 

 of wet places ; but I am surprised that the sedums 

 and sempervivums suffer, for they are all succulent 

 plants, having in themselves a store of moisture which 

 generally seems sufficient for all their wants, even 

 when growing in the barest and driest spots, with 

 little or no soil ; yet many of them have shown that 

 they feel the drought severely by curling themselves 

 up into small balls, and so remaining till the rains 

 come, when they again unfold themselves. I was also 

 puzzled with the bamboos. Looking on them as sun- 

 loving plants, I had not before fully realised how 

 necessary moisture is to them ; but up to the middle 

 of July, though they showed no signs of distress, 



