Ditches, Lanes, Copses, and Hedgerows 49 



by ceaseless flow of the torrent, are often beautiful, so 

 may we adorn the shady dykes and lanes. For while 

 the nymph-gardener of the ravine may depend on the 

 stray grains of seeds brought in the moss by the robin 

 when building her nest, or on the mercy of the hurrying 

 wave, we may place side by side the snowy white wood 

 Lily (Trillium grandiflorum), whose hbmsls in the shady 

 American woods, the twin flower of Northern Europe, 

 and find both thrive on the same spot. In North 

 America in the woods and near them I often saw the 

 wet ditches filled with noble ferns. And not only may 

 we be assured that numbers of the most beautiful plants 

 of other countries will thrive in deep ditches and in like 

 positions, but also that not a few of them, such as 

 the white wood Lily, will thrive much better in them 

 than in the open garden, the results widely differing 

 according to the nature of the soil and many other 

 things — not always easy to understand the action of 

 The Trillium has a flower as fair as any white lily, but, 

 in consequence of being a shade-loving plant, it often 

 perishes in a dry garden border, while in a shady moist 

 dyke it will thrive as in its native woods ; and, if in 

 moist, free soil, prove as fair as anything seen in 

 our stoves. 



Our wild flowers take possession of the hedges 

 that seam the land, often draping them with such 

 inimitable grace that half the conservatories in the 

 country, with their small red pots, are poor compared 

 with a few yards' length of the blossomy hedgerow 



