60 THE WILD GARDEN. 



mould it grows around here in the utmost profusion. In 

 one phice by the side of a wood is a sort of ditch, which is 

 filled with water in winter l)ut (hy in summer, and wherein 

 is collected a mass of leaf-soil. Here the Erythronium runs 

 riot, and forms the densest kind of matted sod, all bespeckled 

 with yellow l)lossoms before a bush or tree has spread a leaf. 

 Then blackberry bushes get a growing and sprawling every- 

 where, the trees expand their leafy shade, and Grrass and 

 weeds grow up and cover the surface of the earth. But all 

 too late for evil, the Adder's-tongue's mission for a year is 

 ended ; it has Ijlossomed, matured, and retired. The next 

 densest mass I know of is in a low piece of cleared timber 

 land, where, besides the profusion in the hollow, the carpet 

 extends, thinner as it ascends, for many yards up the slope of 

 the hill. As garden plants they are at liome anywhere, under- 

 neath bushes, or in any out of-the-way corner, merely praying 

 to be let alone. But what I desire to urge is their naturalisa- 

 ation in your rich woodlands, where Anemones and Primroses, 

 Buttercups and Violets, grow up and flower together." 



I cannot better conclude this cliapter than by showing one 

 of the most interesting aspects of vegetation I have ever seen.^ 

 It was in an ordinary shrubbery, forming a belt round a 

 botanic garden. In the iinier parts, hidden from the walk 

 probably from want of labour, the digging had not been carried 

 out for some years. Some roots of the common Myrrh 

 (Myrrhis odorata), thrown out of the garden in digging, had 

 rooted by accident and spread into a little colony. The plant 

 grows freely in any soil. Among the graceful tufts of ]\Iyrrh 

 were tall white Harebells, and the effect of these, standing 



1 See illustration on p. 51. 



