POLLOK 



of vegetable life. Strange to say, mosses and lichens, 

 humblest in the scale, succumb first, so that in all 

 this region stones and tree stems are devoid of that 

 kindly covering which always gathers upon them 

 in a pure atmosphere. The next to suffer are trees 

 themselves ; for although many fine elms, beeches, 

 oaks, sycamores, ash, and even pines survive in this 

 wide strath, these grew to maturity under conditions 

 very different from those now prevailing, and the 

 growth of young trees, especially conifers and oaks, 

 is sorely checked and blighted by carbon deposit 

 and sulphurous fumes. 



Nevertheless, horticulture dies hard ; the instinct 

 of every man owning a garden is to obey the primaeval 

 command " to dress it and to keep it " ; and Miss 

 Wilson has chosen a scene in the garden at Pollok 

 as an example of what combined skill and resolution 

 may accomplish in the most forbidding environment. 



The subject of the picture is a terrace wall, con- 

 structed only five or six years ago of ashlar masonry, 

 with slits purposely left between some of the joints 

 for the insertion of suitable flowering plants. 



The park of Pollok is but a green oasis round 

 which Glasgow and the neighbouring burghs have 

 flowed like a dark and rapidly rising tide. Yet here, 

 on this terrace wall, within constant sound of steam 

 hooters and whistles, steam hammers and pumps, 

 you may see alpine flowers blooming as profusely 

 and with colours as clear as they do on the loftiest 

 solitudes on earth and in the purest atmosphere. 



63 



