HARDY FLOWERS. 



INTRODUCTION, 



IN " Alpine Flowers " I treated of the most interesting classes of 

 Lardy plants, and the only ones with which there is the slightest 

 difficulty as to cultivation, etc., but besides the true alpine flora 

 there are many natives of the low hills, plains, and prairies which 

 are not considered " alpine " either from a horticultural or a 

 botanical point of view, and the best of these, with all the true alpine 

 plants, are included here. The book comprises the cream of all the 

 ornamental, hardy, herbaceous, alpine, and bulbous plants at every 

 elevation, from sea shore to snowy peak, that are now to be had in 

 cultivation. The descriptions are more technical than those in 

 " AlpinS Flowers," as it was thought desirable to give the reader 

 some means of identifying any plant of which he might have doubts 

 as to the name. Though the number of species selected is large 

 (between thirteen and fourteen hundred), weedy subjects, or those 

 unsuitable from any other cause, have been carefully excluded. 



In the selection of these plants for ornamental purposes more care 

 is required than is the case with any other class, and there is 

 nothing more calculated to add beauty and interest of the highest 

 order to the British garden than the spread of knowledge as to the 

 really ornamental kinds. 



That many perennials are very beautiful every person who knows 

 a Pseony, or a Delphinium, or a Phlox must be aware ; but that a 

 vastly greater number of them are very ragge'd and weedy-looking 

 is not less true ; and it is this fact that explains why they have been 

 so much driven from cultivation of late years. The variation in the 

 aspects of plants, even of the same family, is as great as the contrast 

 presented by their properties, which range from the deadliest of 

 poisons to the most grateful, fragrant, and nourishing of products. 

 Look through the vast and not odoriferous order Composite, and 

 what a way you have to wade through groundsels and fetid and 



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