WAY-SIDE HINTS. 151 



around every station. Does anybody doubt that this 

 thing is to be in the years to come ? Does anybody 

 doubt (who believes in progress) that some day the 

 directors, now so stolid and indifferent, will make a 

 merit of it, and take a pride in pointing out their 

 horticultural successes upon their league-long strips 

 of garden? 



One very great advantage in that nice culture 

 which is to be observed about many of the British 

 and Continental railway stations lies in the fact, that 

 the culture and its success are submitted every day to 

 thousands of eyes. What you or I may do very suc- 

 cessfully, and in obedience to the best laws of taste 

 and vegetable physiology on some back country prop- 

 erty, may really benefit the public very little, for the 

 reason that the public will never put eye upon it ; 

 but what our horticultural friend at a railway station 

 may do (if done well) is of vastly more profit. It is 

 in the way of being seen ; it is in the way of being 

 seen of those who are not immediately engrossed 

 with other care than the easy care of travel ; it gives 

 suggestions to them in their most accessible moods. 

 To this day I think I have fixed in my mind many a 

 little gracefully arranged parterre of bloom, only 

 petunias and pansies and four o' clocks, may be, which 

 I saw only a few moments on some day, now far 

 gone, in other latitudes, and of which the scant 



