PLANTS FOR POOR SOILS 189 



two by clever pruning, the gap it leaves when it 

 dies is so large that it is perhaps wiser to clothe 

 the wall with something more enduring. 



The coloming is in varieties of pale yellow and 

 pale purple; the clear yellows are those I like best. 

 Occasionally seedlings disappoint one by coming of 

 a poor muddled colour, a mixture of washy purple 

 and dull yellow and dirty white. I hear of the 

 fixing of a fine white kind, and shall grow it next 

 season in the hope that it may do credit to its 

 advertised character. 



Two of the North American thornless Brambles, 

 Bubiis nutkanus and Ruhits spcdabilis, are capital 

 plants in poor soil. The taller of them is a very 

 handsome thing in late summer. Many of my 

 visitors assume that because my soil is sandy, 

 and there is a thin skin of peat, that it is there- 

 fore perfect for Rhododendrons and Azaleas. But 

 such an assumption is much too hasty, and though 

 I do grow these grand shrubs, and even Kalmias, 

 it is only by means of a careful preparation first 

 and a close watchfulness afterwards. Where they 

 were to be, the ground Avas first deeply trenched, 

 but at every place where a Rhododendron was 

 planted, the trenched soil was taken out two feet 

 deep, and a good barrow-load of the peaty top earth 

 was put in. Then the plant was placed, and its 

 ball covered with a little of the peaty stufi". A 

 good dressing of cow manure was next worked in 



