SCOTTISH GARDENS IN GENERAL 



even in high class works on horticulture, upon the 

 assumption that, because Scotland lies a few hundred 

 miles nearer the North Pole than do the Home 

 Counties, it is useless to attempt to cultivate any 

 except the hardiest shrubs and herbs beyond the 

 Tweed. The reader receives the impression of a 

 rigorous climate, with intensely cold winters and 

 sunless summers ; and that impression, as regards 

 summer, at least, is often confirmed to those who 

 postpone their visit to Scotland till Parliament rises, 

 perhaps late in August, after the Lammas floods 

 have soaked the land and the evenings have turned 

 damp and chill. But those who know the north 

 country in June and July do not need to be 

 warned against such an erroneous conception, or to 

 be told that the Scottish soil and climate are quite 

 as favourable to floral display as are those of any 

 part of England. 



Nevertheless, speaking broadly, the climates of 

 the two realms are different in character, and 

 it behoves the gardener to take this into account 

 in furnishing his borders and shrubberies. It may 

 help him to do so, if he has a general under- 

 standing of the mechanism of climate, so to speak. 

 It certainly would have saved the present writer 

 from many blunders had he been guided earlier by 

 a better knowledge of the principles of meteorology, 

 and from expense and disappointment incurred by 

 attempting to cultivate unsuitable species of shrubs 

 and herbs. 



3 



