Shrubbery, Plantation, and Wood 89 



planted an acre with seedlings which were crowding 

 their parents.' 



' Though the wood comprises but a few acres, there is 

 a wide range of soil and aspect in it. The wood is chiefly 

 of Oaks ; beneath them is a great depth of leaf soil — a soil 

 in which many plants will thrive if the exposure is right for 

 them. A better place for shade-loving plants could not well 

 be found. Outside the wood is a wide stretch of sloping 

 treeless ground fully exposed, consisting of a good loam, 

 and between it and the wood is a low- lying portion through 

 which runs a little stream ; in another place is a deep bog 

 where one might sink knee-deep in soft mud, and where 

 Calthas and such plants thrive. 



' Lilies abound everywhere in the wood, and may be 

 counted by the thousand under various conditions of soil 

 and aspect. For Lilium auratum, total shade is worse than 

 full exposure, particularly if the season be a wet one. The 

 healthiest plants are well sheltered and have a partial shade. 

 Here North American Lilies of the superbum and pardalinum 

 types may be seen probably finer than in their native haunts. 

 The tall stems of the Swamp Lily rise up midst brushwood 

 and carry huge heads of flowers that make the slender stems 

 bow with every breath of wind. Never till now had we 

 seen large colonies of Lilies of the dahuricum and elegans 

 type, the effect of which was charming. Just at the bottom of 

 the slope, in a deep loam, where they were fully exposed, 

 they were the finest, some of the stems being 4 feet and 

 5 feet high, and loaded with blossoms. Higher up were 

 masses of Lilium monadelphum and its varieties, called 

 severally Szovitzianum, Loddigesianum, and colchicum, all 

 uncommonly fine, the stems tall and stout, and carrying huge 



