PLANTS FOR POOR SOILS 191 



still more largely spaced, although I like here and 

 there to plant two or three of the same together, 

 or if not the same, of such colourings as approach 

 each other and will make a mass of closely related 

 harmony, Kalmias are almost swamp-plants, and 

 are grateful for any amount of water that can be 

 given them in a dry soil. How I long to have a 

 good patch of peaty swamp and to plant it mainly 

 with Kalmias of different ages, and to have with 

 them a restricted number of things that would 

 enjoy such a place. My first choice would be some 

 patches of Royal Fern and of Lady Fern, with a 

 wide planting of Epigcea rejpens and a long drift of 

 Cypripedium spectdbilc. 



All the hardy Heaths are happy in poor, sandy 

 soil simply trenched. There are so many beautiful 

 kinds that it is hard to resist getting a larger 

 number of varieties than look well together. Our 

 own heathy wastes show a good example of how 

 two, or at most three, suit each other's company. 



It would be extremely interesting to plant a 

 large space with these Heaths, and though I have 

 more than once seen bold plantations of them, I 

 have never seen them placed quite as I should 

 like. I should always plant them in the long 

 drifts that seems to me by far the most natural 

 and pictorial way of placing most plants in rather 

 wild places, and I would have them so that very 

 few kinds were in sight at the same time. And I 



