BEAUTY OF FORM IN THE FLOWER GARDEN. 235 



while the beauty that may be got from ferns is very remarkable 

 indeed, our native Royal Fern being of noble proportions when well- 

 grown in half-shady and sheltered places in deep soils, as at Newick 

 Park, and the same is true of all the bold American ferns, plants 

 too often hidden away in obscure corners, whereas the boldest of 

 them should be brought out in our cool British climate to form 

 groups on the lawn and turf. This applies also to our larger native 

 ferns, which, massed and grouped away from the old-fashioned fernery, 

 often tell better. In this way they are used in some German 

 gardens. We do not illustrate them in this chapter, because the 

 reader has simply to turn to the chapter on the Fern garden to see 

 some of their fine forms. 



If any one objects that some of the plants mentioned in this 

 chapter are coarse, such as the great leaved composite, the answer is 

 that, on the other hand, many of them are refined and delicate, such 

 as the Acacias, Acanthus, Asparagus, Bamboos, and Ferns. Great 

 Reed, Pampas and Bulrush evergreen, Barberry, and graceful Cypress, 

 Cedar and Fir. Plaintain-Lily and Adams needle not forgetting 

 the fine foliage of the Tea Rose. 



During recent years the most graceful things and of permanent 

 value in our gardens are Bamboos. 



THE BAMBOO GARDEN AT KEW. " The Bamboo garden formed a 

 few years ago at Kew has proved so well adapted for the plants, that 

 a few notes as to its position and soil may be of value to the 

 numerous readers who intend to grow the Bamboos. A position was 

 selected in the middle of a wood near the Rhododendron dell, and 

 taking advantage of a hollow already existing there, the ground was 

 lowered some 5 feet or 6 feet below the surrounding level. A belt of 

 shrubs on the north and east sides, between the trees and the Bamboos 

 together with the low level, affords them a shelter almost as perfect as 

 can be furnished out of doors. Even the bitterest north-easter loses 

 a good deal of its sting before it reaches these Bamboos. What the 

 cultivator of Bamboos has most to fear is not a low temperature 

 merely most of the Bamboos will stand 20 or 25 of frost in a still 

 atmosphere but the dry winds of spring. 



Bamboos like best a free, open, sandy loam, and the greater part 

 of the soil at Kew is poor and sandy ; but there is, in one part, a belt 

 of good stiff loam extending for a few hundred yards, and it is on 

 the border of this that the Bamboo garden is situated. At the com- 

 mencement the ground was trenched to a depth of 3 feet, and 

 enriched with leaf-soil, and where necessary lightened with sandier 

 soil. These plants can scarcely be over-fed, and in well-drained soil 

 can scarcely be over-watered, and an annual mulching with rich 

 manure is of the greatest advantage. 



In regard to transplanting, the best time to plant is in spring, when 



