PLANTS FOR POOR SOILS 185 



branches so tiglitly to any rock or stone that came 

 in its way that it followed its form as closely as would 

 a dwarf and clinging Ivy. Other plants seem to 

 break into varieties with this way of growing. I 

 hear of the same trick among Junipers in Norway, 

 in plants otherwise the same as those that grow 

 into upright bushes. In my own ground there is 

 a common Juniper that will not grow upright ; it is 

 a foot high and four feet across, the branches all 

 growing horizontally, and apparently with a kind of 

 deUberate determination, for the branches grow lower 

 and straighter than even those of its relative, the 

 Savin, whose business it is to grow in this way. 



Of Lavender I always arrange to have two hedges 

 of a good bearing age, besides a number of bushes 

 here and there. Every year in early summer we 

 make a good number of cuttings. When rooted these 

 are planted out in nursery lines, and in the autumn 

 of the next ^^ear they are nice round little bushes, 

 just at the best size for planting out permanently. 

 Lavender can also be propagated by layering, but the 

 plants are not so well shaped as those grown from 

 cuttings. The year after planting, the young hedge 

 gives a few nice flowers, the next year a good crop, 

 and the third year its fullest yield. After that, with 

 me, the bush deteriorates, and begins to show bare 

 gaps, yielding less bloom. Still in half-wild places I 

 leave it, because though it is no longer so effective 

 as a flowering bush it is distinctly pictorial. But 



