3i6 



THE NATURE BOOK 



• I'. Mason Cood. U'iiuhjicld. 



AN AUTUMN DISPLAY IN THE HON. MRS. VERNER'S GAKUKN, llAKTFORD BRIDGE, 



WINCHFIELD. 



stems that bear them. Their graceful 

 masses of grey, soft pink and tender 

 mau\e seem in perfect harmony with their 

 surrounchngs, they are characterised by 

 a softness, a pensive wistfuhiess that 

 seem to possess the air and ]:)er\'a(le the 

 garden. There is beauty as exquisite in 

 the subtle harmonies of the autumn 

 garden as in the brilliant colour con- 

 trasts of summer bloom ; each is fully 

 appreciated in its season. With the 

 fall of autumn there comes an influence 

 that seems to alter one's point of view, 

 so attuning one's sense of perception 

 that the tender tones of the autumn 

 flowers appear to have as rich a beauty 

 as those of any other time. 



There is no more charming colour 

 picture in the autumn garden than the 

 outer fringe, where the mauve and grey 

 bl')omed Asters are massed around the 

 white and slender stems and beneath the 

 golden leaves of the Silver Birch. The 

 llowers and leaves rombine to form one 

 of the most exquisite associations of tree 



and blossom I have seen, one that is of 

 the spirit of the autumn mists. Then the 

 Japanese Anemones that throw their white 

 blossoms so gracefully above the leaves 

 are among the most attractive of autumn 

 flowers. A striking garden picture results 

 if one plants the autumn Lobelia, that 

 bears bright scarlet blooms on bronze- 

 coloured stems some three feet high, with 

 the Ja}:)anese Anemones. Then the Mont- 

 bretias. Sunflowers, Coneflowers, Chrysan- 

 themums, Gladioli, and Dahlias play an 

 im]iortant part in the autumn garden, 

 making splashes of rich colour in the pre- 

 ^■ailing grey. And Rose and Clematis, 

 how they glow in the drab gloom ! What 

 would the autumn garden do without 

 Roses ? Their fragrance may not be so 

 pronounced now as in the evening of a 

 summer's day, but there is still warm. 

 colour in the petals and a glamour that 

 is always theirs surrounds them. Some of 

 the finest autumn bloomini? roses are the 

 magnilicent white Frau Karl Druschki, 

 Madame Ra\'ary, whose petals are of a 



