THE WATER-GARDEN 273 



The Wood-Lilies, on the other hand, require no atten- 

 tion beyond good planting, and are among the grandest 

 of all plants for any corner of the garden wet or dry, in 

 any cool moist climate, in any deep rich soil — peaty, 

 loamy or, best of all, leafy— but not limy. In the copse, 

 in the wild-garden, beside the stream, on the shady rock- 

 work, wherever Solomon's Seal and Lily of the Valley will 

 thrive, there may you also have clumps and drifts and 

 beds of Trillium. And Trillium, for general garden 

 purposes, means Trillium grandiflorum, the sovereign of 

 the race. The great Wood-Lily, in growth and texture 

 and height, is exactly like a three-leaved version of our 

 own rare north-countryman, Paris quadrifolia, from the 

 Alpine woods. But who is there that does not know the 

 flower, that huge, tripetalled snowy goblet, so different 

 from the inconspicuous little quaint green bloom of 

 Paris ? Trillium grandiflorum stands well ahead among 

 plants of the first rank for the rock-garden, — of perfect 

 ease, hardiness, and persistence. Slugs and mice, however, 

 are its bitter enemies here — or perhaps ardent inarticu- 

 late admirers, who can only show their admiration by 

 eating its object. Its rosy variety is lovely, but cannot 

 possibly improve on the snowy type — exquisite as is the 

 harmony that my plants are now making in a big bed 

 which they share with their contemporary, profusely 

 pink-belled little Menziesia empetriformis. And Trillium 

 grandiflorum will vary very much in size and splendour 

 from one importation — some forms almost reaching the 

 snowy magnificence of a young Lilium candidum, or Mag- 

 nolia Yulan, while others are comparatively — but onJy 

 comparatively — poor. Trillium sessile has beauty in its 

 three broad marbled leaves, but its big flowers are narrow 

 in petal and dull in colour, except in the variety califor- 

 rticum, which is larger and longer than grandiflorum, of a 

 bright, warm white, but inferior in effect, owing to its 



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