OF SHRUBS AND THEIR PLACING 13 



I am establishing a wild cliff-garden, which, when fairly 

 started, will be a wonderful sight of natural beauty. 



Of the Potentillas there are two or three that are 

 genuine shrubs, and admirably fitted for the rock-garden. 

 Of front-rank among these comes our own native, Poten- 

 tilla fruticosa, a plant curiously rare, and yet curiously 

 abundant where it occurs. Thus you will find it above 

 the High Force in Teesdale, that gardener's Paradise, 

 where the botanist grows crazy for Viola arenaria and 

 Arenaria uliglnosa, and the gardener's bones are melted 

 within him by the ecstasy of Gentiana verna and spread- 

 ing miles of purple pansy. On either side the river, in 

 the sand, grows Potentilla fndicosa, a close, woody, wiry 

 shrub of two to three-foot height, covered all over with 

 abundance of big, brilliant yellow flowers. This treasure 

 is invaluable for any garden, and absolutely easy in any 

 soil. The only thing it requires is to be cut over, hard, if 

 ever it shows signs of becoming leggy. It will break out 

 anew from below, and re-form into a compact bush. 

 Very similar to this again is Potentilla Jloribunda — in- 

 deed hardly, to me, distinguishable, unless its flowers are 

 a little smaller. P. Salesowii is a newcomer, reported to 

 have whitish flowers. So far I only find it a small shrub 

 of rather ugly leaf and growth. The sulphur-blooming 

 dw&ri Potentilla Friedrichseni I have not yet tried, though, 

 on the whole, I hear it well reported of. But the triumph 

 of the race is Potentilla nitida — though I don't know if 

 I can fairly call this a shrub, seeing that its height is 

 only about two inches at the very most. Potentilla nitida 

 lives in the Alps of Tyrol and North Italy, in the higher, 

 sunny moraine- and debris-slopes — a minute, woody 

 trailer, with cloverish leaves, of a pure grey, brilliantly 

 silver on the reverse, and very large flowers of a rich 

 cherry pink, differing in depth of colour in different plants. 

 If the ordinary rosy type were not so beautiful, the snowy- 



