74 ROCK AND WATER GARDENS 



Bog Asphodel (Narthecium) will, if irregularly grouped, 

 lend interest and charm to the smaller colonies. 



Close beside one of the small pools we must have a 

 patch of the Bog Arum (Calk palustria), a small trailing 

 plant with delicate white spathes. It increases rapidly, 

 and may be associated with a plant or two of the 

 Golden Club (Orontium), which blooms profusely in 

 early summer. During the dull, cheerless days of late 

 winter, the golden-yellow Pilewort (Ficaria grandiflora), 

 seen from a distance, looks almost like a rift of sun- 

 shine on the neutral tinted bog. Such plants as this 

 and the Marsh Marigold, in no sense rarities, could ill 

 be spared. 



Though the best form of bog garden is the outcome 

 of judicious treatment of marshy ground, stream sides, 

 and the wet margins of ponds, the absence of these 

 natural features need not debar us from growing bog 

 plants. Artificial bog gardens, though somewhat costly 

 to construct, may be found in places at high elevation. 

 In fact, a large amount of interest and pleasure may be 

 evoked by a small garden, only a few feet square. I 

 have seen miniature bog gardens, charming in their way, 

 which have been formed in disused fountain basins, 

 though as a rule the position occupied by these — lawn 

 centres and highly cultivated parts — renders them 

 unsuitable. The bog garden should be situated in 

 semi-wild surroundings, and for its due appreciation 

 the eye should have lately contemplated natural effects, 

 such as a woodland path or the grouping of wild 

 plants by the meadowside. Therefore, before decid- 

 ing on a position, we should endeavour to secure 

 a site, the approaches to which betray few signs of 

 cultivation. 



Simple gardens, varying in size with the means and 

 inclinations of the owner, may be formed on ground 

 which has a slight incline. On the level it is always 



