A GARDEN DIARY 53 
to be in the same position, the difference between 
their growth in wet and dry soil being extra- 
ordinary ; indeed when one remembers how they 
abound in Spain and Italy, one fails to under- 
stand the limp and desolated aspect they see 
fit to assume here, under a very much more 
moderate dispensation of drought. 
Next follows Funkia Sieboldi. Funkias are 
all meritorious plants, but Sieboldi, to my mind, 
towers head and shoulders above the rest. Apart 
from the beauty of the flower, its grey-green, 
almost iridescent foliage is like no other leaf that 
grows, and when the two are combined the result 
is High art, art at its best point. Such praise is, 
however, merely impertinent. It is more perti- 
nent to say that the whole genus, but especially 
Sieboldi, belong to that very limited category of 
plants that are at once fit for the most orthodox 
of beds or borders, while at the same time they 
are free enough, and independent-looking enough, 
not to seem ridiculous in a bit of pure “ wild- 
ness” such as this little pond-side purports to 
be. This is far from being a common virtue. 
One only needs to run over such words as 
‘‘Hollyhock,” “ Begonia,” “Pelargonium,” to per- 
ceive in a moment what would be intolerable 
outside of a more or less stiff parterre. It is 
not so much a question of beauty, as of fitness 
and adaptability, perhaps also of freedom from 
certain set associations, which, having once rooted 
