INTRODUCTION 5 



plimentary remarks were the order of each day. 

 Look at the picture, and see for yourself what my 

 Mexican poppywort can do. Then began the tell- 

 tale holes and tatters. I hunted, and protested, and 

 examined every branch, and dived head first into the 

 midst of the plant all in vain. But the powers of 

 darkness came to my aid ; I stalked the enemy with a 

 bull's-eye lantern when all good insects slept ; and 

 destroyed five-and-twenty lusty green hooligans in a 

 night. They were, of course, gnawing the unopened 

 flower-buds, as I expected. 



My garden is formal, I am proud to say ; and if it 

 was a thousand acres instead of one, I would still 

 have it formal. You can walk round it in two 

 minutes. The only question is whether it will be 

 worth your while so to do. Mr. Robinson, to whom 

 be all honour for his opinions on this subject, has 

 laid it down that " no garden is more likely to be 

 inartistic than the one rich in plants." He is right 

 right to the very summit of rectitude ; and for this 

 reason I limit myself rigidly I will be artistic. I 

 have almost a thousand genera, and of some, of 

 course, many species. But I refuse absolutely to go 

 much beyond that number. A thousand genera for 

 one acre of garden will suffice anybody. There are 

 plants, like Sequoia 1 gigantea, that want an acre all to 

 themselves, and these I do not grow. What, after all, 

 is a thousand genera ? Hardly one-sixth of the total 

 number known to science. Yet, even with these, one 



1 Sequoia. What an interesting definition has this word. The mighty 

 conifer is called after a mighty man : See-qua-yah, a Cherokee chieftain. 



