The Garden 



garden, and I hope something of filial piety, as well as 

 the realisation of the impossibility of having one's own 

 way under such circumstances, has led me in the path 

 of gentle and gradual elimination of these devouring 

 hordes, which from other views are of course trees, and 

 therefore not to be lightly felled. 



One of the last of the Horse Chestnuts dropped several 

 stout limbs on a row of garden seats last summer, and pro- 

 vided a powerful argument for the removal of the trunk 

 that shed them. So from the garden proper they have 

 gone to the timber yard, and as firelogs serve to warm my 

 bones instead of offending my eye. To anyone who may 

 follow my example I offer this hint : be quite sure the 

 wood is well dried before sawing it up for bringing into 

 the house ; otherwise the scent of sour sap will be as 

 offensive to the nose as the misplaced tree was to the 

 eye. To sum up the present conditions of the garden ; 

 climate, soil, and trees contrive to make it the driest and 

 hungriest in Great Britain, and therefore arises the line of 

 gardening I have been driven into. It is perhaps better 

 described as collecting plants and endeavouring to keep 

 them alive, than as gardening for beautiful effects or the 

 production of prize-winning blossoms. Many find the 

 garden too museumy to please them. I plead guilty to 

 the charge, knowing there is more of the botanist and 

 lover of species and natural forms and varieties in me 

 than there is of the florist or fine cultivator. In fact 

 I gladly give a home to the class of plant the writers in 

 early numbers of the Botanical Magazine and Botanical 

 Register faintly praise as being suitable for the gardens 

 17 B 



