22 HARDY FLOWERS. 



my "Wild Garden/' to which I refer all those who have opportunities 

 for carrying out this system to any extent. In the descriptive part 

 of the present volume it is always stated when a subject is useful in 

 this way, and a selection of the "most suitable kinds will be found at 

 the end. 



HARDY PERENNIALS, ETC. IN WATER AND IN BOGGY GROUND. 

 A great deal of beauty may be added to the margins, and here 

 and there to the surface, of ornamental water, by the use of a good 

 collection of hardy aquatics arranged with some taste, but, so far 

 as I have seen, this has not yet been fairly attempted by any designer 

 of a garden or piece of water. Usually you see the same mono- 

 tonous vegetation all around the margin if the soil be rich ; in some 

 cases, where the bottom is of gravel, there is little or no vegetation, 

 but an unbroken ugly line of washed earth between wind and water. 

 In others, water-plants accumulate till they are a nuisance and an 

 eyesore I do not mean the submerged plants like Anacharis, but 

 such as the Water Lilies, when they become matted. Where the soil 

 is not such as will permit the growth of aquatics, a few loads of 

 earth might be thrown in here and there, and in this way one could 

 arrange to have the plants exactly in the positions one requires 

 them, whereas, when there is a rich muddy bottom all round, the 

 common kinds usually manage to crop up everywhere, and to pro- 

 duce a monotonous effect A carefully drawn up selection of aquatic 

 plants is given in Part III., and the culture and arrangement 

 of all the valuable kinds are described in the alphabetical arrange- 

 ment. 



Even more interesting than the culture of aquatic plants, but 

 very rarely practised, is that of bog-plants. Varied as is the flora 

 of the streamlet and lake margin, it is small indeed compared to 

 that of the bogs and marshes, which to a great extent cover the 

 surface of all wild countries, and indeed of old and long-cultivated 

 ones. Although I had enjoyed such plants as Rhexia virginica 

 grown to perfection in an artificial bog* in a British garden and 

 knew many of the beautiful plants worthy of a place with it, I had 

 not the faintest conception of the enormous extent and importance 

 of the marsh and bog Flora of northern countries till I visited 

 America, where, in the northern parts, one sometimes travels for 

 days through wet or boggy ground, often ornamented with very 

 beautiful plants. A carefully compiled selection of bog-plants occurs 

 in Part III., and the subject is exhaustively treated for the first 



