DITCHES AND NARROW SHADY LANES. 37 
between riven rocks, and gaily occupy the little dark caves 
beneath the great boulders on many a horror-stricken moun- 
tain gorge, and which garland with inimitable grace the vast 
flanks of rock that guard the dark courses of the rivers on 
their paths through the hills. And as these dark walls, 
ruined by ceaseless pulse of the torrent, are beautiful 
exceedingly, how much more may we make all the shady 
dykes and narrow lanes that occur everywhere! For while 
the nymph-gardener of the ravine may depend for her novel- 
ties 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 home is in the shades of the 
American woods, with the twin flower of Scotland and northern 
Europe, and find both thrive on the same spot in happy com- 
panionship. And so in innumerable instances. And not only 
may we be assured of numbers of the most beautiful plants of 
other countries thriving in deep ditches and in like positions, 
but also that not a few of them, like the white wood lily, will 
thrive much better in them than in any position in garden 
borders. This plant, when in perfection, has a flower as fair 
as any white lily, while it is seldom a foot high; but, in con- 
sequence of being a shade-loving and wood plant, it usually 
perishes in the ordinary garden bed or border, while in a 
shady dyke or any like position it will be found to thrive as 
well as in its native woods; and if in deep, free, sandy, or 
vegetable soil, to grow so as not to be surpassed in loveliness 
by anything seen in our stoves or greenhouses. 
Our wild flowers take possession of the stiff, formal, and 
