1891-92]. CANADIAN WILD FLOWERS. 125 
CANADIAN WILD FLOWERS. 
BY De WebeADLE, B.A., LL.B. 
(Read oth April, 1892.) 
The purpose of this paper is to awaken an increased interest in our 
native wild-flowers, by shewing that they are worthy of a prominent 
place in our flower gardens, and thereby to rescue at least some of them 
from impending extermination. 
Hitherto the floral embellishment of our lawns has been largely con- 
fined to the annual planting of tender exotics. This necessitates a yearly 
expenditure in the preparation of beds, procuring and setting out of 
plants and subsequent care. After planting, a considerable interval must 
usually elapse before sufficient growth can take place to make the bed an 
attractive object. When at length it attains to the fullness of its display, 
it is the same unvarying picture, presenting no new feature throughout 
the season, becoming even tiresome by reason of its uniformity. And at 
the first sharp frost of autumn all the brightness is suddenly extinguished, 
so that we are fain to have the plants removed out of our sight, and con- 
tent ourselves with the bare brown earth prospect, until winter covers it 
with a mantle of snow. 
But now a tendency is being manifested towards the adoption of a 
more natural system of flower gardening, a system that does not demand 
new plants every season; in which are no bare earth prospects through 
the spring and fall, nor pinched and shivering look of plants waiting for 
weather warm enough to enable them to put forth their flowers, nor tire- 
some monotony of forms and color, and at the last the sudden death of 
allin a night. In the natural system, the early flowers will begin to 
appear with the first mild days of spring, and from thence forward new 
forms and colors are appearing in continuous succession, so that each 
passing week some fresh object of interest is presented, and when the 
cooler days and frosty nights of autumn come, there will be no painful 
sense as of sudden death in the garden; Flora will but wrap her mantle 
of crimson and gold about her and gently sink into her winter slumber. 
At this juncture, when tired of the artificial, public attention is being 
turned towards a system of flower gardening more consonant with nature, 
it seems opportune to direct attention to our wild-flowers, to shew to the 
general public the floral treasures of our own land, and awaken, if 
