GARDENERS 227 



combine efficient practice with a free play of the in- 

 telligence and a consideration of first principles; and 

 even genius must be educated before it can do this. 

 Genius, of course, is as rare among gardeners as among 

 other men, and educated genius still rarer. Even the 

 most accomplished amateur, if he has the luck to 

 catch an intelligent gardener young, if he can teach 

 him all that he knows himself and train him in his 

 own taste, will yet probably fail to teach him that 

 certainty of practice which is required of most gar- 

 deners. His pupil may know a good deal about Al- 

 pines; he may be able to plant and maintain a beau- 

 tiful herbaceous border; but the chances are he will 

 be rather disappointing with his spring greens, and 

 no good at all at grapes. Men trained in this way 

 may be invaluable in very large gardens, where there 

 is much division of labour; but they are not so useful 

 as the ordinary routine-trained gardener in a place 

 where they have to do or supervise everything. Ama- 

 teurs often wonder at the certainty of the results pro- 

 duced by the great florists. That certainty comes 

 from a division of labour impossible in the ordinary 

 garden. The man who has only one thing to do learns 

 to do it excellently, not only because he is always do- 

 ing it, but because he has nothing else to think of. 

 The ordinary gardener has a great many different 

 things both to do and to think of. He has to plan 

 as well as to execute; and it is only natural that he 

 should plan according to a routine and should be 

 very unwilling to break through it. Thus, it is not 



