INTRODUCTION 



book, "Our Gardens." It is worth retelling here. The Dean is writing in 

 his own inimitable way of the various persons he approached as to their 

 opinion of what a garden was for, and he says that "the unkindest cut of 

 all, so common that it makes one callous, comes from those visitors who 

 ' would be so delighted to see our garden ! ' and they come and see, and for- 

 get to be delighted. They admire the old city walls that surround it, they 

 like to hear the cawing of the rooks, they are pleased with the sun-dial and 

 the garden chairs, but as for horticulture they might as well be in Piccadilly ! 

 They would be more attracted by the fruit in Solomon's shop than by all 

 the flowers in the border. I heard a lady speaking to her companion of ' the 

 most perfect gem she had ever seen,' and when, supposing that reference 

 was made to some exquisite novelty in plants, I inquired the name and 

 habitation, I was informed that the subject under discussion was ' Isabel's 

 new baby.' ' Ladies,' I remarked, with a courteous but scathing satire, ' I 

 have been a baby myself, and am now a proprietor, but I am constrained to 

 inform you that this is a private, and not a nursery, garden.' ' 



THE MISSION OF THE TREES 



It is an undisputed fact that few people stop to admire a tree's 

 symmetry, its bark, its chaste and delicate filigree and lacework during 

 winter, or to study the functions of the leaves, the flowers, the roots, the 

 branches, the fruit, its uses ; just its beauty, that is all. 



Why do trees unfold themselves with such lavish and remarkable 

 splendour I Why are so many so comely, so attractive, so inspiring, so 

 friendly, so companionable, so neighbourly (often more so than their human 

 prototypes) ? No flower " is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness 

 on the desert air," for, although many please and satisfy us, it is not for us 

 alone that they have, through the countless ages, evolved into the wonder- 

 ful floral treasures we see before us to-day. 



No tree or shrub, nor herbaceous plant, wastes its sweetness on the desert 



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