14 The Wild Garden. 



seen nothing comparable to the effect produced on 

 our landscapes by Gorse, Broom, Heather, Wild 

 Hyacinths, Hawthorn, and Buttercups;" and 

 these are but a few conspicuous members of our 

 indigenous flora, which is by no means as rich as 

 those of many other cold countries! In every 

 county in the British Isles there are numbers of 

 country seats in which one hundred types of vege- 

 tation, novel, yet as beautiful as, or more beautiful 

 than, those admired by Mr. Wallace, may be estab- 

 lished ; for there are in the colder parts of Europe, 

 Asia, and other countries. Heaths handsomer than 

 those usually grown, many " wild Hyacinths " be- 

 sides the common English one, many finer " Butter- 

 cups " than those commonly seen, and numbers of 

 Hawthorns besides our common May ; not to speak 

 of many other families and plants equally beautiful. 

 Among the subjects that are usually considered 

 unfit for garden cultivation may be included a 

 goodly number that, grown in gardens, are little 

 addition to them ; I mean subjects like the American 

 Asters, Golden Rods, and like plants, which merely 

 tend to hide the beauty of the choicer and more 

 beautiful border-flowers when planted amongst them. 

 These coarse subjects would be quite at home in 

 copses and woody places, where their blossoms 



