66 MY GARDEN 



garden and sows itself freely. Dwarf roses, dwarf 

 bamboos, and dwarf lilies all occur in the next few 

 yards of rock-border. Of roses some dainty small 

 varieties of the little ' chinas ' and ' fairies ' are all 

 beautiful on stone-work, and of lilies I have here 

 concolor and coridion. The bamboos are going to 

 make a lot of trouble presently. If I am still a 

 gardener in 1907 the battle will have to begin. Of 

 these pushing things I have the variegated bambusa 

 Fortunei, pygmea, disticha, and Veitchii a bamboo 

 that dies from the edge of the leaf inward. This circum- 

 stance gives the clump a distinctive appearance during 

 winter. I have also aurundinaria auricoma, a golden 

 grass, and stipa, the feather grass, with other grasses 

 here and there. My big encrusted saxifrages had a 

 blooming fit this summer, and many noble rosettes of 

 pyramidalis have vanished. They hung out a cloud of 

 snowy, rosy-spotted flowers in June. Several of my 

 clumps of encrusted saxifrages have survived their 

 labels, but I can still distinguish squarrosa and coch- 

 learis minor little beauties both Churchilli and 

 nepalensis. A good few others will be anonymous 

 until they flower and perhaps afterwards. I brought 

 one from the mountain rocks of Portofino ; and 

 a friend conveyed me others from Austria. They 

 came with primula marginata loveliest of alpine 

 primroses. 



Speaking of primulas, I was invited to go on a 

 motor-car expedition when last in the South. Such a 

 pleasure there one associates with rather giddy pur- 

 suits with Monte Carlo and entertainments and 



