THE BOG GARDEN. 265 



queen of the peat bog the beautiful and showy Mocassin-flower 

 (Cypripedium spectabile). Then in California, all along the Sierras, 

 a number of delicate little annual plants continue to grow in small 

 mountain bogs long after the plains are quite parched, and annual 

 vegetation has quite disappeared from them. But who shall record 

 the beauty and interest of the flowers of the wide-spreading marsh- 

 lands of this globe of ours, from those in the vast wet woods of 

 America, dark and brown, hidden from the sunbeams, to the little 

 bogs of the high Alps, far above the woods, where the ground 

 often teems with Nature's most brilliant flowers ? No one worthily ; 

 for many mountain-swamp regions are as yet little known to us. 

 One thing, however, we may gather from our small experience 

 that many plants commonly termed " alpine," and found on high 



Mocassin-flower in rocky bog. 



mountains, are true bog plants. This must be clear to any one who 

 has seen our pretty Bird's-eye Primrose in the wet mountain-side 

 bogs of Westmoreland, or the Bavarian Gentian in the spongy soil 

 by alpine rivulets. 



In many country seats there are spots that with a little care can 

 be made into pretty bog gardens. Where there are no natural sites 

 a bog garden may be made by forming a basin of brickwork and 

 Portland cement, about one foot in depth ; the bottom may be either 

 concreted or paved with tiles laid in cement, and the whole must be 

 made water-tight ; an orifice should be made in the side, at the 

 height of 6 inches, to carry off the surplus water, and another in the 

 bottom at the lowest point, with a cork, or, better still, with a brass 

 plug valve to close it. Five or six inches of stones and bricks are 



