Railway Gardens 



being destroyed ; and what a few years ago was 

 bare earth and rubble is now covered with the 

 heather, the dwarf autumnal gorse, the small 

 campanula, and other heath plants. 



These few instances will be enough to show 

 how even railroads may have their uses in pre- 

 serving to us many plants that might otherwise 

 be lost, sometimes altogether, and sometimes from 

 particular districts ; and I could have added others. 

 Very remarkable is the way in which even our 

 common plants get an increased luxuriance when 

 they find a home within the boundaries of a rail- 

 way. There are many places in which primroses 

 and cowslips may be found in abundance in the 

 fields and hedgerows, but whenever I see them so 

 growing I fancy that they are always finer when 

 they have fixed themselves on the adjoining rail- 

 ways. I cannot say for certain that it is so, 

 because it is not always possible to make the 

 actual comparison when travelling ; but so it has 

 often seemed to me as I pass them, and I have 

 found that fellow-travellers have made the same 

 remark. It is only natural that it should be so ; 

 a plant that is constantly eaten down by cattle 

 will never attain the same luxuriance as one of 

 the same sort that is untouched on a railway bank 

 or in a secluded wood. 



How plants have the power of migrating and 



finding for themselves new and suitable homes in 



fresh localities is a very good subject for inquiry ; 



but that they have the power is matter of common 



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