THE WHITE ROCKERY 57 



the landscapist gets involved in all sorts of contra- 

 dictions. He 'copies nature's graceful touch/ but 

 under totally different conditions to the original ; so 

 far, therefore, from being loyal to nature, he is en- 

 gaged in a perpetual struggle to prove her an ass." 



Now this sound argument justifies me in planting 

 yucca, agapanthus, and acacia, since I am a formal 

 gardener, and my object is not to imitate nature, but 

 to exhibit her productions in a place specially ordered 

 for that purpose ; but the disciples of Mr. Robinson 

 have no right to set up bananas in their glades, or 

 foreign foliage plants for summer bedding. Their 

 avowed ambition and aim is to copy nature as 

 closely as they can ; and nature does not grow the 

 flora of Africa with that of Europe, or mingle the 

 bog plants of North America and her productions 

 from the Himalayas. To be logical, every non- 

 indigenous plant should be banished from these 

 'natural gardens.' Push the precept to its just 

 conclusion, and you arrive at a piece of wild waste 

 land, which is the most perfect natural garden any- 

 body can aspire to in other words, not a garden 

 at all. 



Three cheers for Mr. Blomfield ! I go stoutly 

 along with him until the very end of his book; and 

 there on page 235 I most reluctantly part com- 

 pany. His flower -list will not serve my purpose. 

 It is three hundred years old, and full of scent and 

 music and charm ; but the gardens of our fore- 

 fathers do not suffice us to-day. There is no objec- 

 tion to a plant having a botanical as well as a 



