A GARDEN DIARY 53 



to be in the same position, the difference between 

 their growth in wet and dry soil being extra- 

 ordinary ; indeed when one remembers how they 

 abound in Spain and Italy, one fails to under- 

 stand the limp and desolated aspect they see 

 fit to assume here, under a very much more 

 moderate dispensation of drought. 



Next follows Funkia Sieboldi. Funkias are 

 all meritorious plants, but Sieboldi, to my mind, 

 towers head and shoulders above the rest. Apart 

 from the beauty of the flower, its grey-green, 

 almost iridescent foliage is like no other leaf that 

 grows, and when the two are combined the result 

 is High art, art at its best point. Such praise is, 

 however, merely impertinent. It is more perti- 

 nent to say that the whole genus, but especially 

 Sieboldi, belong to that very limited category of 

 plants that are at once fit for the most orthodox 

 of beds or borders, while at the same time they 

 are free enough, and independent-looking enough, 

 not to seem ridiculous in a bit of pure "wild- 

 ness" such as this little pond-side purports to 

 be. This is far from being a common virtue. 

 One only needs to run over such words as 

 "Hollyhock," " Begonia," "Pelargonium," to per- 

 ceive in a moment what would be intolerable 

 outside of a more or less stiff parterre. It is 

 not so much a question of beauty, as of fitness 

 and adaptability, perhaps also of freedom from 

 certain set associations, which, having once rooted 



