PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. 



and flowered well. In the southern part of Sussex it flowers admir- 

 ably. Edwardsias, too, I felt sure of. They grew well but gave me 

 no flower. The Winter's Bark, of the Straits of Magellan, grew and 

 flowered well for a few years and then was suddenly cut to the 

 ground by a hard frost. Clianthus, which does very well near the 

 coast-line of Ireland and the West Country, died after trials, and 

 several Mutisias, too, which Mr Beamish, in Cork, grows so well, 

 and no doubt many others in Devonshire, died without much loss 

 of time. The graceful Garrya, an evergreen of California, lived well 

 for a few years, but there came a hard winter, and no funereal sight 

 was more sad than my Garrya. 



What is the good of risking such things when there are many 

 plants of N. America and other lands which are really hardy ? It 

 is not only the difference between Aberdeen and Worthing one 

 has to think of; it is the much wider one of things in the same 

 county. Some plants that failed with me do perfectly well below 

 the hills. The soil is a thing to be reckoned with, and no doubt 

 my soil on a cool hill was against the Rose of Sharon, which, perhaps, 

 a hundred miles further north, on a free soil, would be quite happy. 



It is well to note that such considerations do not apply to the 

 Midland counties or to any one county only, because in Devon or 

 Cornwall a thing which for many years has done well may be cut 

 down by a hard frost. The safe way is to look around carefully one's 

 district and study results. Precious years and much good soil may 

 be lost by planting things much too delicate for our air and soil. 



The present Edition has the advantage of the herbaceous plants 

 having been carefully revised by Mr E. M. Jenkins, who is more 

 conversant with these plants than any other man of our time. 



