58 



lief that this lovely flower cannot be transplanted, and more than 

 once I have corrected writers who have asserted this in public 

 print. I have transplanted it successfully — so have many others. 

 Six summers ago, when in England, I saw a nice patch of it in 

 the Bagshot Nurseries ; and many other large nursery firms there 

 offer it for sale. It is not a native there, so that it follows that at 

 some time or other the plants were safely transported from here, 

 seedlings of it being rare. This plant likes shade and moisture 

 and to be undisturbed. It would not thrive in the open garden, 

 but if small, bushy plants with a good ball of earth be taken and 

 set in a woodland where the required conditions exist, they will 

 live and flourish. 



With native plants, a little care should be taken to provide 

 for them situations as alike as possible to those they have been 

 accustomed to. There are shade-loving plants and those that 

 have grown in open places. It often happens that a partly shady 

 border is at command, where those that demand it can be placed. 

 It does not always follow that a wild plant is found growing in 

 the best possible place for it. Take, for example, the Scarier 

 Columbine, found on damp rocks along the Wissahikon (Phila- 

 delphia). I have seen better specimens of it in open places in 

 gardens than ever I have seen wild, no doubt because the garden 

 afforded better food than its native rocks did. 



To those who have not tried it, it would be a great surprise 

 to find how much better plants grow when the ground about them 

 is well mulched. It makes the plants feel more nearly at home 

 than anything else that could be clone, save the giving of shade to 

 some of them. Plants in the woods have shade above them and 

 decaying leaves about them, and those in fields have grass or other 

 plants about them, so that in both places the roots are cool. This 

 is what mulching of the garden plant does, this and the preserva- 

 tion of moisture. Another thing rarely thought of is this. The 

 wild plants in the woods are so covered with forest leaves that 



