96 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



dener who grows his plants only for their flowers 

 thinks always of the flowers as if they were picked, 

 and of his beds and borders as huge nosegays; and 

 the kind of gardening which removes a plant as soon 

 as it goes out of bloom is more like the arranging of 

 flowers for the dinner table than like true gardening. 

 It is a purely decorative art without the deep and 

 satisfying beauty of character. This kind of beauty 

 is what delights us so much in nature and what often 

 seems to be utterly beyond the gardener's attainment. 

 Wild plants, we should remember, do not grow for 

 their flowers alone. They have to fight for their lives, 

 and every part of the plant bears a part in the struggle. 

 We are not suggesting that plants in a garden ought 

 to fight for their lives. It is the gardener's first duty 

 to eliminate the struggle for existence; but he must 

 never forget that the character of plants has been 

 produced by that struggle, and that their beauty is 

 always dependent upon their character. He can often 

 improve upon that beauty, because he has eliminated 

 the struggle for existence. He can often, to begin with, 

 grow his plants much better than nature grows them. 

 He can in many cases enlarge their flowers with ad- 

 vantage, and brighten their colour. But while he 

 does this he should always think of every plant as a 

 whole, of its natural character, and of the right pro- 

 portion between its leaves and its flowers. 



At once, of course, there arises the question how 

 are we to decide upon the right proportion between 

 leaves and flowers; and here comes in the question 



