WILD GARDENS 269 



saying is, if they are given a chance in congenial 

 environment. That is, they will forge ahead 

 and crowd out every other kind that is less 

 adapted to the situation and less aggressive, and 

 will multiply until they finally take complete 

 possession of the space that they covet because 

 of its congeniality. Yet this does not fit these 

 plants for use in the wild garden any more than 

 it makes them truly wild; for it is an unques- 

 tionable fact that plants long cultivated have 

 taken on an elusive something — comparable per- 

 haps with the finish that culture brings to man 

 — that sets them out of harmony with wilderness 

 conditions in a subtler way than the mere asso- 

 ciation of ideas could involve. 



By which it appears that there is more to this 

 subject of wild flowers and wild gardens than 

 at first meets the consciousness; which makes it 

 the more interesting and worth looking into. 

 But it is something which each must find out 

 for himself, after a certain point is reached; so 

 without going further along this line I will only 

 say that the wild garden, as a definite concept 

 in garden making, involves a certain sense of law- 

 lessness and struggle in the vegetation gracing 

 it — not struggle carried to the point of positive 

 destruction as in a state of nature, but stopping 

 just short of this. The bountiful and aggres- 



