96 THE WILD GARDEN". 



rock r)lants that would not l)e able to liold their own amono- 

 Grass and ordinary weeds and wild flowers. One of the 

 happiest features of this wild garden results from the way 

 in which dead trees have been adorned. Once dead, some 

 of the smaller branches are lopped off, and one or more 

 climbers planted at the base of the tree. Here a Clematis, 

 a climbing Eose, a new kind of Ivy, a wild Vine, or a 

 Virginian Creeper, have all they require, a firm support on 

 which they may arrange themselves after their own natural 

 habit, without being mutilated, or without trouble to the 

 planter, and fresh ground free to themselves. What an 

 admirable way, too, of growing the many and varied species 

 of Clematis ! as beautiful as varieties with flowers as large as 

 saucers. Even when an old tree falls and tosses up a mass 

 of soil and roots the wild gardener is ready with some 

 subject from his mixed border to adorn the projection, and 

 he may allow some choice Bramble or wild Vine to scramble 

 over the prostrate stem. A collection of Ivies grown on old 

 tree-stems would be much more satisfactory than on a wall, 

 and not liable to robe each other at the roots, and interfere 

 with each other in the air. Ferns are at home in the wild 

 garden ; all the strong hardy kinds may be grown in it, and 

 look better in it among the flowers than in the " hardv 

 Fernery " properly so called. Even more graceful than the 

 Ferns, and in some cases more useful, because they send up 

 their plume-like leaves very early in the year, are the giant 

 Fennels (Ferula), which grow well here, and hold their own 

 easily among the strongest plants. The common Fennel is 

 also here, but it seeds so freely that it becomes a troublesome 

 weed, and shows a tendency to overrun plants of greater 



