HARDY FLOWERS. 



that displayed a tithe of the beautiful plants which it might have 

 had, or that was in any way worthy of a beautiful garden. Assuredly 

 a well-arranged mixed border would be one of the most interesting 

 thing's ever seen in a garden. But it is not alone in that way that 

 the plants under discussion may be made available. Many combina- 

 tions of the utmost beauty, and which have not yet been attempted 

 in gardens, are quite possible with them, and very few have any 

 idea of the many diverse ways in which they may be cultivated, so 

 as to attain the happiest results. I will in the following chapters 

 proceed to describe these various ways in which the flora of northern 

 and temperate climes may be grown and arranged with best effect 

 in our gardens, and by which we may, to a great extent, be deli- 

 vered from the appalling monotony and vacant formality now dis- 

 played by the majority of them. 



It is an every-day occurrence to see hardy plants placed in positions 

 where there is no possibility of their surviving but for a very short 

 time. Therefore at the risk of being a little monotonous at times, 

 the culture and suitable positions for every species are given. This 

 portion of the work is the result of my own observation of the 

 plants in nearly all public and private gardens in these islands 

 where a good collection is grown, and of their habitats in a wild 

 state both on the continent of Europe and in America. By far the 

 greater number of the plants have been described from personal 

 knowledge of them in a living state. 



I am greatly indebted to the owners of nearly all the good collec- 

 tions in the nurseries and private gardens near London, and in 

 various other parts of the country, for specimens of a large number 

 of the kinds named in the book. In a work dealing with such a 

 number of plants from so many diverse climes, references to many 

 books had to be made, principally to the following: Walper's 

 "Annales" and " Eepertorium ;" De Candolle's "Prodromus;" 

 Grenier and Godron's "Flore de France;" Vilmorin's "Fleurs 

 de pleine terre;" Duchartres' Jacques et Herincq's " Manuel des 

 Plantes ;" Gray's " Manual of the Botany of the Northern United 

 States;" Pursh's "American Flora;" Torrey and Gray's "Flora 

 of North America;" Wood's "Tourist's Flora;" Don's "System 

 of Gardening and Botany;" Kunth's "Enumeratio Plantarum;" 

 "Nouveau Jardinierj" Syme's "English Botany," and Miller's 

 " Dictionary." 



