THE ASSOCIATIONS OF FLOWERS 263 



will grow quite well in the border, and yet so grown 

 they seem to lose half their beauty with all their 

 power of association. Therefore we make special 

 places for them as congruous with their associations 

 as possible. 



It is to be hoped, however, that as we travel more 

 and more and further and further afield we shall not 

 develop this kind of sensitiveness about all the for- 

 eign plants which we find growing in their native 

 homes. Gardening would become impossible if we 

 tried to imitate the natural conditions of plants from 

 all over the world, if the new associations of foreign 

 travel were to destroy the old associations of our gar- 

 dens; if we could no longer take delight in Lobelia 

 cardinalis in the border because we had seen it grow- 

 ing in an American wilderness; or if a cottage garden 

 came to seem an absurdly artificial and incongruous 

 place to us. But this is never likely to happen. At 

 present our sense of the associations of flowers is 

 weakened and troubled by many things, by the revolu- 

 tion in gardening fashions which is still continuing, and 

 by the multitude of new plants that are constantly 

 introduced. There are some gardeners who prize 

 novelty for its own sake and take no pleasure in fa- 

 miliar beauties. But this time of revolution and dis- 

 covery must come to an end; and then we shall find 

 out which of the plants, new and old, we love the 

 best; and about these associations will gradually 

 gather again, and they will become familiar to us, 

 we may hope, not only in our gardens, but also in 

 our poetry and art. 



