CHAPTEE XIV. 



THE PRINCIPAL TYPES OF HARDY EXOTIC FLOWERING 

 PLANTS FOR THE WILD GARDEN. 



Wherever there is room, these plants should be at first 

 grown in nursery beds to ensure a good supply. The number 

 of nursery collections of hardy plants being now more numer- 

 ous than they were a few years ago, getting the plants is not 

 so difficult as it once was. The sources of supply are these 

 nurseries ; seed houses, who have lists of hardy plant seeds — 

 many kinds may be easily raised from seed ; botanic gardens, 

 in which many plants are grown that hitherto have not 

 found a place in our gardens, and were not fitted for any 

 mode of culture except that herein suggested ; orchards and 

 cottage gardens in pleasant country places may supply 

 desirable things from time to time ; and those who travel 

 may bring seeds or roots of plants they meet with in cool, 

 temperate, or mountain regions. Few plants, not free of 

 growth and hardy in the British Islands without any atten- 

 tion after planting, are included here : — 



Bear's Breecll, Acanth^is. — Vigorous perennials witli noble foli- 

 age, mostly from Soutliern Europe. Long cast out of gardens, tliey are 

 now beginning to receive more of the attention tliey deserve. In no 

 position will they look better than carelessly planted here and there 

 on the margin of a shrubbery or thicket, where the leaves of the 

 Acanthus contrast well with those of the ordinary shrubs or herbaceoiTs 



