PREFACE 



Since a preface is said to be a necessary evil, it may per haps 

 be utilised as a means for the embodying of a few notes on 

 subjects not contained in the book itself. A mong these, 

 it should be explained that those flowers "wild or culti- 

 vated whose outlines face first pages of the months, are 

 not supposed to follow in any order of succession as to 

 their proper flowering seasons. They were drawn solely 

 for pure love of them, and were arranged wheresoever 

 they seemed to suit the best. 



On finally looking through the proof sheets, the writer 

 has to confess to a disappointing sense of inadequacy ; a 

 pervading, uneasy impression of how poor a thing after 

 all these slight garden records are. The flowers named 

 in them so few so scanty the attempted portrayal of 



