Concluding Observations. 113 



Notwithstanding all we read about ornamental 

 gardens, in particular places and at occasional times, 

 within our own memory culture of plants for orna- 

 ment has made more way generally in the world, and 

 in the British Islands amongst the rest, than at any 

 former period. Pliny the elder, who spent his life 

 in study of natural history, left an encyclopaedia of 

 all that was then known of horticulture ; but all that 

 was small, and the enjoyment confined to few, com- 

 pared with what is within reach of millions amongst 

 us. In these later days, from Japan and China to 

 Terra del Fuego and islands far to the south, from 

 North- Western America to Queensland, the world is 

 ransacked to minister to our pleasure in different 

 branches of natural history ; and rulers and leaders of 

 the public mind, in countries most distant from each 

 other in many ways, encourage such enjoyments. 

 We all see or hear of what has been done and is 

 a-doing in the parks of Paris and London. 



Now, even at risk of seeming to wander from our 

 immediate subject, I will mention a few more of 

 what appear to me special reasons, with a social 

 aspect, for encouraging amongst ourselves such pur- 

 suits as those we have been considering. We live in 

 peculiarly intellectual and thoughtful days.: never 

 before was the brain so worked : for a century the 

 civilized world has been passing through a social 

 revolution such as it never before witnessed. From 

 time to time, ablest observers and profoundest 

 thinkers have expressed alarming apprehension as 



