PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. vi 



their Latin names than to speak of the dove or -the rabbit by Latin 

 names, and where we introduce plants that have no good English 

 names we must make them as well as we may. Old English books 

 like Gerard were rich in English names, and we should follow their 

 ways and be ashamed to use for things in the garden a strange 

 tongue. Every plant grown in gardens should have an English name, 

 among the many reasons for this being the frequent changes that 

 Latin names undergo in the breaking down of the characters which 

 are supposed to separate genera. For instance, Azalea and Rhodo- 

 dendron are now one genus. Such changes are even more trouble- 

 some when they occur in less well-known plants ; and one of the 

 most beautiful plants of our gardens, the Irish Heath (Dabcecia, 

 now Boretta), will not be found now by its hitherto recorded name 

 in the London Catalogue of British Plants. But if we have a good 

 English name, these ceaseless botanical changes are of less conse- 

 quence. It is impossible for gardeners and nurserymen to keep up 

 with such changes, not always indeed accepted even by botanists 

 themselves. 



One of the first things the lover of flower gardening should do 

 is to get a clear idea of the distinction between gardening and 



botany. Gardening is an inexhaustible art ; 



Gardening and botany is a world science, and the great mistake 



Botany. j s to consider gardening from the point of view 



of the botanist. To the botanist every plant, 

 weed or poisonous herb is of equal value, which is right from his 

 point of view, but the gardener must be very careful not to take 

 that view. Numbers of plants which have lately come to us from 

 China are useless for the garden, though, along with them, there 

 are beautiful garden plants. The old botanic gardens of Europe 

 were often planned as though the garden were a sort of book, and 

 we see the results of this in many gardens abroad. It is neither 

 artistic nor natural. Where garden space is often limited and labour 

 scarce, the garden should only be given to plants of garden value. 

 It is impossible to get the world's flora represented in it, and a 

 garden made by a collector is rarely beautiful. Colour, stature 

 and form should come before any botanical consideration. Even 

 beautiful plants like the Clematis, Honeysuckle, etc., may be found 

 after trial to be, many of them, not worthy of a place in the garden 

 compared with others. The gardener is very much indebted to 



