48 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 



deep soil, in which they by no means object to a good 

 deal of moisture if the drainage be good. Add to this 

 a sheltered glen or corner, where spiteful spring winds 

 cannot assault and hurt the young, upshooting growths, 

 and your Bamboos will grow as in Japan. They are, 

 indeed, damp-climate plants, and wild-garden plants, 

 essentially ; impatient of control, and far too glorious to 

 be broken in. Their charm is their high, imperious 

 grace.- Group them up some glen in majestic clumps, 

 and you will have your reward. With me they thrive in 

 garden and in wood, but in the heavier rainfall of the 

 Lakes they develop tropically, and make great jungles 

 in the misty, steaming Himalya climate at the northern 

 end of Windermere. Above all, though, let no one 

 think that by planting Bamboos in a dense, serried mass, 

 and making little wobbling walks between them with 

 blocks of white stone, you can produce anything in any 

 way fit to be called a Japanese Garden. In the real 

 Japanese garden the Bamboo hardly figures at all, if 

 ever, its whole growth and character being so alien to 

 the scheme required. And in no part of England, 

 remember, will there be any difficulty or danger about 

 cultivating the hardy Bamboos. They are as robust as 

 brambles, and their only fault is their excessive vigour. 

 Of course there are innumerable greenhouse kinds in China 

 and the Tropics. Of these, naturally, I make no men- 

 tion. Let us hope it is one of these that is the agent of 

 a certain peculiarly appalling Chinese torture. 



