Wild Gardens 



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of tall white birches grew directly out of the terrace. Another corner was 

 filled with a dense growth of staghorn sumac. Xot far off was a fair-sized 

 maple. These furnished shade, so necessary where forest-loving plants are 

 to be naturalised. But by far the most attractive of the natural features 

 of the garden was a wild grapevine with gnarled and twisted stem, as thick 

 as one's wrist, which had clambered up over a couple of birches, covering 

 them with its mterlacing arms and bending them over by its weight, until 

 they formed a natural arbour of great beauty. Two wild cherry trees standing 

 nearby furnished convenient support on which the birches leaned when the 

 midsummer wealth of leaves and fruit made the vine too heavy for them to 

 bear. From a little distance off it rose above the surrounding bushes with 

 the symmetry of a dome, the broad, overlapping leaves covering it as with 

 tiles. Beneath was a veritable bower, at all times shady, and a spot 

 presenting many possibilities. Such were the prominent features of my wild 

 garden, as yet uninhabited except 

 by the ever-present daisy, the 

 goldenrod, and the aster. 



The task which now presented 

 itself was to fill this up — to bring 

 from forest and meadow and 

 swamp every plant that was 

 "pleasant to the sight," and make 

 it to grow in the garden. The 

 work was commenced in the early 

 spring, and the hepatica and the 

 violet were planted in masses 

 beneath the vine-covered birches. 

 Here, too, I set out in favourable 

 positions, under the tangled lower 

 branches of the trees, colonies 

 of the pink lady's-slipper and 

 of the showy orchis. In the 

 shade of the maple were naturalised the mountain laurel and the 

 wild azalea, Anth such success, too, that both bloomed the season 

 after transplanting. Along the fence the wild sunflower was started, 

 and it has grown since with increasing profusion. Under the cluster 

 of birches near the house I commenced a fern bed, and in early j\Iay excited 



Rueanemone 



