114 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



best kind of observation, any more than cramming 

 for an examination is the best kind of learning. One 

 forgets the notes as soon as one has used them; but 

 the knowledge got by loving observation stays in the 

 mind and makes pictures there. It is because chil- 

 dren observe disinterestedly that they have such 

 long memories; and so disinterested observation is 

 the secret of the gardener's, no less than of the poet's 

 or painter's, magic. 



But there is reason and method in the magic of all 

 arts; and the great gardener's love of plants only 

 makes him a great gardener because he turns it into 

 science. The passion of observation is what con- 

 nects all excellent works of science and art. It makes 

 the great artist something of a man of science, and 

 the great man of science something of an artist; and 

 gardening, in its humble way, is both an art and a 

 science, and can only be practised well by the man 

 who will learn it as an art and a science. He must 

 not only be always observing, but also always experi- 

 menting; and it is experiment alone that can make 

 his observation profitable just as it is only observation 

 that can teach him how to experiment. And the 

 more he does of both the more he will be able to use 

 his common sense in gardening and to see the reason 

 and the system of things. The great defect of most 

 professional gardeners is that, however well they 

 have been taught a right routine, they do not know 

 the reason of it, and therefore cannot apply it to 

 things outside their experience. They have learnt 



