THE WATER-GARDEN 269 



the tropical growth of gigantea and the kindred of 

 g'lgantea, spuria Monnieri and the rest. 



Another small hint ; it is no bad thing to make your 

 edging of uneven height — that is, especially, to build it 

 up, at one point, if possible, to a bulk of rock-work, 

 impending immediately over the water. And, for such a 

 high point most delightful is the common Great Solomon's 

 Seal, whose tall, indescribable majesty is thus shown to 

 the very best advantage. Stately is the Great Solomon's 

 Seal always, but most particularly in autumn, and, if you 

 give it such a lofty lonely place it will return you a picture 

 of pure wan gold in late autumn, magically soft and 

 beautiful, the clearest softest note of all amid the russets, 

 saffrons, and sere browns of those last dreadful days. 

 On a still, chill autumn afternoon, amid the bronze and 

 purple of dead fern fronds, the withered seed-vessels 

 of Iris, the dry brown plumes of Spiraea, tower the clean 

 gold croziers of the Polygonatum, mirrored, pale and clear, 

 in the brown sad water, choked already with wreckage of 

 leaves, blue with ghostly reflections of the sky. And 

 those arched sprays of pure yellow seem the very incar- 

 nation of autumn, uncomplaining, phantasmal, motion- 

 less, unutterably meek and tragic. 



Along the outer edge of the bog belt, under your eye 

 as you stroll round, you will, if it be wide enough, have 

 all the choice little bog plants for which you have room 

 — Primulas, Gentians, small Saxifrages, Alpine Butter- 

 cups, and so forth. But, seeing that the small bog 

 plants are so small, and the large bog plants so very 

 large, not to say rampageous, it is far best to give up a 

 section of the belt entirely to little things, rather than 

 try to grow them all round under the shadow of larger 

 neighbours. Middle-sized robust things that will be useful 

 all round, on the outer edge of tall giants such as Irit 

 Monnieri, are Gentiana asclepiadea, all the Globe-flowers 



