64 A YEAR IN A LANCASHIRE GARDEN. 



or Cerastium and that is about all. There is no 

 thought and no imagination. The "bedding-stuff" 

 is got together and planted out, and each year of 

 planting is a repetition of the year before ; and 

 thus, as Forbes Watson says so truly, " Gardeners 

 are teaching us to think too little about the plants 

 individually, and to look at them chiefly as an 

 assemblage of beautiful colours. It is difficult in 

 those blooming masses to separate one from an- 

 other ; all produce so much the same sort of 

 impression. The consequence is, people see the 

 flowers on our beds without caring to know any- 

 thing about them, or even to ask their names." 

 Any interest in the separate plants is impossible, 

 and then they are, almost without exception, 

 scentless plants, to which no association attaches, 

 and which are cared for merely because they give 

 a line or patch of red or yellow to the garden. 

 " The lust of the eye and the pride of life," there 

 is little purer pleasure to be drawn from " bedding 

 stuff" than those words convey. However, there 

 is already a reaction setting in, and the use of 

 Echeverias and the like gives evidence at least of a 

 more refined taste in colour, though in themselves 

 nothing can be less interesting. Meanwhile, as 

 some bedded-out beds will always be necessary, 



