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deterioration of numerous wild plants under cul- 

 tivation ; it is not always merely a question of 

 soil, shade, or exposure. Many wild trailing 

 plants succeed better when grown in large mass- 

 es, doubtless because they thus retain the moist- 

 ure longer. The winter-green, nevertheless, will 

 do fairly well in shade, tightly packed in a mixt- 

 ure of old leaf-mold and loam. The goldthread 

 (Coptis trifolid) is one of the finest of all small 

 carpet-plants, and is easily naturalized in leaf- 

 mold and partial shade. 



Vaccinium macrocarpon, the common cran- 

 berry, is a fleet runner over the sphagnum, and 

 bears transplanting even in sandy soil, where it 

 forms a neat carpet, but not nearly so dense or 

 of so thick a pile as the partridge-vine. With 

 the Mitchella, Coptis, and Linncea very many 

 dainty native wild flowers may be associated, 

 such as false Solomon 's-seal, Pyrola elltptica 

 and rotundifolta, wood-anemones, star-flowers, 

 false violet, star-grass, and others. The little 

 oak-fern and common polypody look pretty 

 springing from the dark undergrowth. But 

 the twin-flower, partridge-vine, and goldthread 

 are so charming themselves that, in some places 

 at least, the carpet should be formed of them 

 alone. 



Many of our native orchids are among the 



