XVI INTRODUCTION. 



and often also delicious fragrance added thereto. We 

 find, also, subjects In flower at all seasons, the few but 

 choice gems of winter rearing their humble blossoms 

 laden with lessons of infinite love and encouragement 

 to man, if he will but open his heart to receive them ; 

 the more numerous and varied gems of spring, that leap 

 as it were into life and beauty in a day, under the first 

 genial influences of relenting nature ; and the numerous 

 host of summer and autumn beauties, all preceding and 

 ushering in each other as the weeks and months pass on, 

 leave a rich floral memento and promise on the memory 

 for each period of the year. 



There probably never was a time when all this was 

 more needed and rare in British flower-gardens than the 

 present ; and the question might fairly be asked. Having 

 once possessed this wealth of beauty to some extent, 

 why did we not keep it, and add to it, rather than cast 

 it wholly from us ? It could not be from want of skill 

 to use it, nor incapacity to enjoy it ; for it may be safely 

 affirmed that there is as little limit to the one quality as 

 to the other in flower-gardening. Nor could it be for 

 want of space ; for in that matter, " where there's a will 

 there's a way," within certain limits. The introduction 

 of the massing style, and the banishment of the old 

 types of herbaceous and alpine plants, are coeval in 

 the history of flower-gardening ; and the former, it may 

 be assumed, was the direct cause of the misfortunes of 

 the other. Any unbiassed mind will, however, admit, 

 that " bedding-out " was a step, and a long one, in the 

 way of progress, and that it still continues to advance 

 in that path in the hands of those who understand its 

 value best, and keep its proper aims in view, notwith- 



