A GARDEN IN VENICE 



penetrate deeply, making it friable, as well as 

 materially adding to the drainage and so helping 

 all plants to root. Now with us newly -planted 

 plants root with difficulty. The soil dries quickly, 

 cakes badly, and for want of drainage is easily 

 saturated. 



The earthworm, says Darwin, drags into the 

 soil the harder part of insects, the shells of land 

 molluscs, and an infinite number of dead leaves 

 and other parts of plants. This material must 

 form a rich manure, and as their work is continu- 

 ous the soil is continually renewed. With us, 

 plants, when they have taken root, will thrive 

 abundantly and after a year or two die out. They 

 have exhausted that part of the soil they fed on 

 much more quickly and entirely than they would 

 do at home, and they die out as rapidly as they 

 first grew. Larkspurs, for instance, sown by us 

 one year sow themselves the next so thickly that 

 they suffocate all other plants. In two years 

 more the larkspur is almost extinct. So with 

 poppies, and with antirrhinums, foxgloves, sweet- 

 williams, and many other plants, whether sown 

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