THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



221 



but the opposite extreme to the case 

 just put is a profusion of flowers at 

 certain seasons and few or none at 

 other times, the recognition of the 

 garden as almost an accident rather 

 than a place for recreation at all sea- 

 sons, and a perpetual school for 

 knowledge and delight. Too many 

 of our thriving and intelligent citizens 

 make their gardens magnificent solely 

 through taking a low view of the case, 

 a statement which may sound strange, 

 but which is none the less true. It 

 is not extravagant outlay, it is not 

 mere display and the outshining of 

 all the neighbours, that renders a 

 garden an additional item in making 

 up the sum of domestic happiness ; it 

 may feed the pride of a man ; it may 

 give him some grounds for boasting ; 

 it may delight for a season, as fire- 

 works do; but the surface system, 

 the flash in the pan, gives only pass- 

 ing pleasure — the eyes are dazzled, 

 but the mind gains nothing from the 

 labour and the outlay. 



Now, collecting is a sovereign 

 remedy for all the ordinary evils 

 under which, aesthetically considered, 

 amateur gardeners labour. In every- 

 thing the mind needs a pivot round 

 which to revolve and about which to 

 associate in proper order its several 

 ideas. The reader of poetry finds his 

 highest pleasure in comparing and 

 criticism, and such a great work as 

 the "Iliad," or what else, becomes a 

 pivot about which his thoughts on 

 poetical subjects continually revolve. 

 He will perhaps indulge in Buch a 

 train of thought as comparing 

 Homer's, Virgil's, and Job's descrip- 

 tions of the war-horse, and the com- 

 parison will be pleasurable and 

 profitable as a mental exercise, 

 because it is founded on a system. 

 In like manner the artist considers 

 pictures according to the schools they 

 represent, colours according to the 

 fundamental laws by which their tones 

 and relationships are governed, and 

 the cultivator of flowers, the very 

 private and unassuming decorator of 

 a garden, which serves as open-air 

 drawing-room, dancing sialoon, play- 

 ground, and ever-changing picture, 

 needs some sort of system to make 

 the best of his pleasure, and give to 



it the zest which ever accompanies a 

 truly intellectual pursuit. Systematic 

 collection is the best pivot that can 

 be found for governing the revolu- 

 tions of a gardener's thoughts about 

 gardening; he may grow all the 

 various kinds of plants needful for 

 use and ornament, and be a collector, 

 besides, of the members of certain 

 families and tribes, and he will not 

 go far without discovering that col- 

 lecting is a genuine concentration of 

 garden pleasure, and one which makes 

 of it a feast of reason and a flow of 

 soul. Perhaps, after all this elabo- 

 rate exordium, the reader is unmoved. 

 Hard-hearted reader, to be unmoved 

 at such a juncture ! Well, the next 

 thing to establishing a case is to beg 

 the question. At a risk we do this ; 

 and suppose it to be agreed upon that 

 amateurs should be collectors, and 

 that some remarks on the practical 

 part of the subject are now de- 

 sirable. 



We are not only unable to deter- 

 mine the tastes of our readers, but 

 happy in our impotence to influence 

 them to the breadth of a hair. Our 

 rule has always been to say, " Grow 

 what you please, but say what you 

 wish to grow, and we are ready to 

 help you if we can !" So we say 

 now, let every practitioner choose his 

 own course. There are collectors of 

 orchids, there are collectors of ferns, 

 camellias, of roses and of hardy 

 fruits ; there are collectors of potatoes 

 and there are collectors of goose- 

 berries. The act of collecting in- 

 tensifies every pleasure derivable from 

 the art of cultivating, and the col- 

 lector is the best able to appreciate 

 differences and distinctions that exist 

 among the members of families, and 

 hence it is that the enjoyments of a 

 collector are always fresh and new, 

 they never tend to ennui, to stale- 

 ness, or to sameness. Now there are 

 several subjects on which collectors 

 have as yet bestowed very little at- 

 tention. There are several large 

 classes and families of hardy plants 

 that merit the mo3t earnest attention 

 of the real lover of horticultural re- 

 finements. There are the saxifrages 

 for instance, what exquisite forms of 

 vegetation do we find amongst these 



