MY MOUNTAIN GARDEN 303 



though to cultivate the acquaintance of the scarlet 

 poppy. Returning to the tarn, all the water plan- 

 tains are here the family of the duck-weeds and 

 upon a mass of tangle is the floating nest of a coot. 

 The curious aloe-like water-soldier is here; and were 

 not anacharis the principal food of the swans and 

 their cygnets it would soon fill the tarn. 



So many rare or beautiful plants grow in my 

 mountain garden as to be almost innumerable. Just 

 where a tiny stream joins the mere the evening 

 primrose grows in great luxuriance. Its old 

 name of wine-trap it has from the fact of its 

 being, at one time, used as an incentive to wine- 

 drinking, as olives are to-day. Brightening up the 

 edges of the bog are great golden tufts of marsh- 

 marigold, which has bloomed since spring, and will 

 continue right on to the end of summer. The 

 lilac valerian is here, the horse-tail, and the bugloss. 

 Floating in the shallower parts of the tarn are the 

 large white clustering blossoms of the frog-bit. 

 The crumpled petals are just tinged with pink, their 

 satiny surface looking like mother-of-pearl in its 

 iridescent hues. As a setting for the flowers are the 

 cool, glossy leaves on their long floating stalks; 

 and it is perhaps on this account that the older 

 botanists called the plant lesser water-lily. The 

 delicate rose-coloured flowers of the pretty bog 

 pimpernel peep from the marsh turf, and the likeness 



