CHAPTER Vil 
FUTURE POSSIBILITIES 
THERE is nothing finite in science—nothing finite in the arts 
and crafts which are her handmaids. Certainly nothing in 
gardening ; for year by year, almost day by day, new treasures 
are discovered, or old ones reveal new secrets ; more especially 
in the matter of hardihood do we meet with surprises. For 
how many lustres was the Aucuba cribbed, cabined, and 
confined as a tender plant in greenhouses, until some kindly 
but audacious hand set it free? and now it is to be found in 
every London square, smut-begrimed and filthy, but glorying 
and rejoicing in its filth, And so it has been with many 
plants once marked with a capital G in every catalogue, but 
now thriving gaily in a climate to which they have 
accustomed themselves without difficulty. Not five years 
ago one of the most famous of our gardeners, looking at my 
newly-imported starveling Bamboos, said with the sneering 
grunt of the unbeliever, “They'll all die.” The laugh is on 
my side now, for the rickety babies have grown into stalwart 
young giants, full of lusty life, with the joy of many days 
ahead of them. And the best of it is, that the great and 
unexpected success which has attended the acclimatisation of 
those Bamboos which we already possess is but a herald of 
