Introduction^ etc. 



fact before our eyes, the nearer will be our 

 approach to truth and success. 



Nature in puris naturalibus we cannot have in 

 our gardens, but Nature's laws should not be 

 violated ; and few human beings have contravened 

 them more than our flower-gardeners during the 

 past twenty years. We should compose from 

 Nature, as landscape artists do. We may have 

 in our gardens — and without making wildernesses 

 of them either — all the shade, the relief, the grace, 

 the beauty, and nearly all the irregularity of 

 Nature. 



Subtropical gardening has shown us that one of 

 the greatest mistakes ever made in the flower- 

 garden was the adoption of a few varieties of 

 plants for culture on a vast scale, to the exclusion 

 of interest and variety, and, too often, of beauty 

 or taste. We have seen how well the pointed, 

 tapering leaves of the Cannas carry the eye up- 

 wards ; how refreshing it is to cool the eyes in the 

 deep green of those thoroughly tropical Castor-oil 

 plants, with their gigantic leaves ; how grand the 

 Wigandia, with its wrought - iron texture and 

 massive outline, looks, after we have surveyed 

 brilliant hues and richly - painted leaves ; how 

 greatly the sweeping palm-leaves beautify the 



