THE WILD GARDEN. 159 



has also for companions the Violet and the Cowslip, hardiest children 

 of the north, blooming in and near the still leafless woods. And this 

 fact should lead us to see that it is not only a garden flower we have 

 here, but one which may give glorious beauty to our woods and fields 

 and meadows as well as to the pleasure grounds. 



In our country in a great many places there is plenty of room to 

 grow them in other ways than in the garden proper, and this is not 

 merely in country seats, but in orchards and cool meadows. To 

 chance growth in such places we owe it already that many Narcissi 

 or Daffodils which were lost to gardens, in the period when hardy 

 plants were wholly set aside for bedding plants, have been preserved 

 to us, at first probably in many cases thrown out with the garden 

 refuse. In many places in Ireland and the west of England Narcissi 

 lost to gardens have been found in old orchards and meadows. 



There is scarcely a garden in the kingdom that is not disfigured 

 by vain attempts to grow trees, shrubs, and flowers that are not 

 really hardy, and it would often be much wiser to devote attention to 

 things that are absolutely hardy in our country, like most Narcissi 

 to which the hardest winters make no difference, and, besides, we 

 know from their distribution in Nature how fearless they are in this 

 respect. Three months after our native kind has flowered in the 

 weald of Sussex and in the woods or orchards of Normandy, many 

 of its allies are beneath the snow in the mountain valleys of Europe, 

 waiting till the summer sun melts the deep snow. On a high plateau 

 in Auvergne I saw many acres in full bloom on July 16, 1894, and 

 these high plateaux are much colder than our own country generally. 

 Soils that are cool and stiff and not favourable to a great variety 

 of plants suit Narcissi perfectly. On the cool mountain marshes and 

 pastures, where the snow lies deep, the plant has abundance of 

 moisture — one reason why it succeeds better in our cool soils. In 

 any case it does so, and it is mostly on dry light soils that Narcissi 

 fail to succeed. Light, sandy or chalky soils in the south of England 

 are useless, and Narcissus culture on a large scale should not be 

 attempted on such soils. We must not court failure, and however 

 freely in some soils Narcissi grow in turf, there is no law clearer than 

 that all plants will not grow in any one soil, and it is a mercy, too, 

 for if all soils were alike, we should find gardens far more monotonous 

 than they are now. Gardening is an art dealing with living things, 

 and we cannot place these with as little thought as those who arrange 

 shells, or coins, or plates. At the same time we may be mistaken as 

 to failures which now and then arise from other causes than the soil. 

 I planted years ago some Bayonne Daffodils on the northern slope of 

 a poor field, and thought the plants had perished, as so little was seen 

 of them after the first year. Despairing of the slope, it was planted 



