146 ALPINE FLOWERS AND GARDENS 



ugly. Statues, fountains, goldfish and such-like 

 accessories could add not one jot or tittle to its 

 fascination. Many a rock-garden in England is 

 reminiscent of the story of a Japanese gentleman 

 who, taken to see an elaborate and costly ' Japanese ' 

 garden in the counties, declared with delightfully 

 ambiguous enthusiasm ' It is wonderful ! Marvel- 

 lous ! We have nothing like it !' 



There is also admirable occasion for the botanist 

 in these gardens : an enlarging opportunity which 

 his Herbarium can scarcely supply. If Botany is, 

 as the dictionary says it is, ' the natural history of 

 plants,' then it is not merely a question of micro- 

 scope and Latin names ; it is the all-round study 

 and knowledge of plants. What is often spoken of 

 as Botany tends too much to * drive out nature 

 with a fork,' and our conversation with distinguished 

 botanists is too often a talk with what Emerson 

 would call ' accomplished persons who appear to be 

 strangers in nature.' There are, indeed, some 

 botanists who take no interest whatever in the 

 live plant, and who look upon those who do as 

 ' gardeners.' In the * Memorials ' of Professor 

 C. C. Babington is told a story of how a Newnham 

 girl saw a saucer-full of the red fungus Peziza 

 coccinea and exclaimed, ' Oh ! how beautiful ! What 



