3 o8 



THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



PHIL p LEAS ANT indeed is my Indian Garden. Here in a green 



ROBINSON. 1 colonnade stand the mysterious broad-leaved plantains with 

 their strange spikes of fruit there the dark mango. In a grove 

 together the spare-leaved peepul, that sacred yet treacherous tree 

 that drags down the humble shrine which it was placed to 

 sanctify ; the shapely tamarind, with its clouds of foliage ; the 

 graceful neem ; the patulous teak, with its great leathern leaves, 

 and the bamboos the tree-cat loves. Below them grow a wealth 

 of roses, the lavender-blossomed durantas, the cactus grotesque in 

 growth, the poyntzettia with its stars of scarlet, the spiky aloes, 

 the sick-scented jessamine, and the quaint coral-trees ; while over 

 all shoots up the palm. The citron, lime, and orange-trees are 

 beautiful alike when they load the air with the perfume of their 

 waxen flowers, or when they are snowing their sweet petals about 

 them, or when heavy-fruited they trail their burdened branches 

 to rest their yellow treasure on the ground. In my Indian 

 Garden. (' The Birds:} 



CHARLES 



DUDLEY 



WARNER. 



THE man who has planted a garden feels that he has done 

 something for the good of the world. He belongs to the 

 producers. It is a pleasure to eat of the fruit of one's toil, if it 

 be nothing more than a head of lettuce or an ear of corn. One 

 cultivates a lawn even with great satisfaction ; for there is nothing 

 more beautiful than grass or turf in our latitude. The tropics 

 may have their delight, but they have not turf: and the world 

 without turf is a dreary desert. The original Garden of Eden 

 could not have had such turf as one sees in England. The 

 Teutonic races all love turf; they emigrate in the line of its 

 growth. . . . 



The principal value of a private garden is not understood. It 

 is not to give the possessor vegetables and fruit (that can be 

 better and cheaper done by the market-gardeners), but to teach 

 him patience and philosophy, and the higher virtues, hope 

 deferred, and expectations blighted, leading directly to resigna- 



