256 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 



thing is, when suited, a tremendous invasive grower, and, 

 personally, I believe its hardiness to be beyond question. 

 But occasionally in bad winters and unpropitious places, 

 it shows signs of a rickety constitution, violently as it 

 grows, when it chooses. And therefore it will be as well, 

 when in doubt, to give it a careful sheltered bank, very 

 well-drained, where cold winter damps cannot lodge, 

 and where the soil is light and good, exposed to full sun, 

 yet safe from blasts and rigours. Yet remember, if you 

 give Parochaetus these advantages you will have to reckon 

 with the certainty of his eating you out of house and 

 home in half a season. Therefore let nothing else of 

 choice be planted in that select sheltered corner — except 

 Tulips, perhaps, and other precious bulbs. Never mind 

 if, at first planting, your infant Parochaetus looks a mere 

 spot of green on an acre of bare earth. In a month the 

 Blue Himalyan Pea will have covered all his space, and 

 probably a great deal more as well. 



As for Potentilla Comarum, this native Potentilla, inter- 

 esting and curious, can only be admitted to the roughest, 

 rankest of wet places. It is never very effective — a 

 rampant low spreading thing, with big flowers of a dingy 

 chocolate. Nor have I very much love for Chrysoiactron 

 HooJceri, a smallish yellow Asphodel of about eighteen 

 inches, which thrives in cool wet comers of the bog. 

 Though bright and pretty, it is not a very distinguished- 

 looking plant. Far otherwise is it with the Bog-bean, 

 best-beloved native of our marshes — bean-like in foliage, 

 spreading its creeping branches abroad with unrelenting 

 speed, and sending up countless spikes of its big cup- 

 shaped flowers, all shaggy with pink and white fur, over- 

 flowing with a foam of snow and cream. For shallow 

 water, or a broad muddy expanse, nothing could be finer. 

 But this is a true ramper, almost indestructible. I made 

 a bed for Rhododendrons once, took out the soil for three 



