MODERN BOTANIC GARDENS 49 



the Alpine house, with its rare treasures of moun- 

 tain flowers ; the warm greenhouse filled with all 

 kinds of decorative half-hardy plants ; the tem- 

 perate range with the Himalayan rhododendrons. 

 Everywhere will be found examples of the highest 

 culture, and excellent effects of grouping. 



But at Kew we find as well illustrations of dif- 

 ferent types of gardening. The purely formal style 

 is represented in spring by brilliant beds of tulips 

 and hyacinths, and other early flowers adapted to 

 the season, replaced as the year advances, and 

 making at all times a display of colour which 

 is most appropriate to the position they occupy. 

 Elsewhere the contrast is presented of crocuses 

 growing in the grass and daffodils and anemones 

 in wild profusion on the slopes. Or again, there 

 is the via media of beds of such graceful flowering 

 shrubs as Forsythia suspensa, its slender wands 

 all hung with countless sulphur bells rising out 

 of a carpet of blue Siberian squills. Whether it 

 be in the early flush of almond and peach blossom, 

 or when the tree magnolias are opening their cups 

 and azaleas are flaming about them, or the rhodo- 

 dendrons in the dell are at the height of their 

 glory, or it is the season of the rambling roses 

 the garden-lover, gentle or simple, cannot fail to 

 acquire much practical knowledge, while he mar- 

 vels at the beauty which finds so much expression 

 in the midst of the serious scientific work which 

 is the legitimate function of the modern botanic 

 garden. 



OF THE 



UNIVERSITY 



