xxx INTRODUCTION 



charm is that in them nature is subdued to the happy 

 purposes of man. She is always quiet within their en- 

 closure, as the sea is quiet in a harbour; and they 

 are a sign, wherever they are to be found, that order 

 and peace and a delight in beautiful things have 

 been long established there. This is the secret of the 

 charm of formal gardens, and it is a charm that we 

 cannot find in any flowery wilderness, still less in the 

 most cunning imitation of one. 



So much for the planning of gardens. There re- 

 mains to be considered. 



THE CHARACTER OF GARDEN FLOWERS, 



and in particular the principles upon which one should 

 aim at their improvement. 



The art of improving or changing garden flowers is 

 probably as old as the art of gardening itself. So 

 soon as plants are cultivated many of them become 

 liable to changes and developments of a kind which 

 they seldom experience in a state of nature, because 

 such changes and developments are of little or no use 

 to them in the struggle for life. The gardener's pur- 

 poses, however, are apt to be different from those of 

 nature, and he makes a different use of that tendency 

 to variation which exists in all plants. Wild plants 

 in favourable conditions, for instance, often show a 

 tendency to double their flowers; but that tendency 

 seldom goes very far, since doubling is rather a hin- 

 drance than a help to plants in the propagation of 

 their species. It is a kind of excess that comes with 



