A GARDEN DIARY 55 



there, not because there is the slightest occa- 

 sion for its being upon the water's edge, simply 

 because it happens to be one of those plants 

 that never seem quite happy unless they have 

 abundance of space to move about in, the long 

 shoots, laden with blossom, having a wonderful 

 power of reaching out to distances that at first 

 sight seem to be quite beyond their grasp. 

 Another plant of which the same may be said is 

 Hydrangea paniculata. So far ours have spent 

 their existence dully in tubs, the idea being that 

 they required winter protection. Judging by 

 some that were experimented upon last winter 

 this seems to be a mistake, and I propose to 

 try a few here, by way of successors to the fore- 

 going, with which their equally industrious sprays 

 seem to possess a sort of kinship. 



Our grassy "glade" being now all but reached 

 the remaining corner of the bank has been filled 

 with various grass-leaved flowering plants, which 

 seemed to come in appropriately. Of these the 

 largest is Libertia formosa, green all the year 

 round, and in summer bristling with white, iris- 

 like flowers, and, by way of plant -fellow to it, 

 Sisyrinchium Bermudianum (Plague upon these 

 polysyllabic dog-latinists !), one of the friendliest 

 of little plants that ever pined for a decent 

 English name. Put it where one will on a 

 bank, in a bog, in a flower-bed it seems equally 

 happy and appropriate ; always compact, yet 



