SCOTTISH GAEDENS 



midlands, which grow and flower luxuriantly in the 

 Scottish westland. A list of these will be found 

 in Appendix B. How greatly the interest and 

 beauty of pleasure-grounds might be enhanced if a 

 selection from these were substituted for the too 

 frequent laurel (which is not a laurel, but a plum), 

 the ubiquitous ponticum rhododendron, the urban 

 aucuba and the suburban mahonia ! One would 

 think, after surveying the sameness which pervades 

 so many shrubberies and flower-beds that there 

 was a poverty of material to choose from, instead 

 of the enormous variety, almost bewildering in 

 extent, which the enterprise of nurserymen and the 

 diligence of their collectors have put within easy 

 reach of people of quite moderate means. 



It must be admitted that there has been a 

 marked improvement in this respect during the last 

 quarter of a century. Many people devote them- 

 selves nowadays to the cultivation of hardy shrubs 

 and herbs with an enthusiasm and degree of know- 

 ledge seldom met with in early and mid- Victorian 

 years. They have grown so keen as to fall, some- 

 times, into the opposite extreme, and to take more 

 pains to rear plants with which it is difficult to 

 succeed than they do with those best suited to 

 their soil and climate. 



I visited lately the famous garden of a friend in 

 Sussex. I found him sitting under a tree, sur- 

 rounded by borders the wealth and variety of which 

 I was eager to explore. Before I could do so, he 



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