Explanatory. 1 1 



flowers in wild or half-wild spots near our houses 

 and gardens, we may produce the most charming 

 results ever seen in such places. To most people a 

 pretty plant in the wild state is more attractive than 

 any garden denizen. It is free, and taking care of 

 itself, it has had to contend with and has over- 

 come weeds which, left to their own sweet will 

 in a garden, would soon leave very small trace 

 of the plants therein ; and, moreover, it is usually 

 surrounded by some degree of graceful wild spray 

 — the green above, and the moss and brambles 

 and grass around. Many will say with Tennyson, 

 in "Amphion," — 



Better to me the meanest weed 



That blows upon its mountain, 

 The vilest herb that runs to seed 

 Beside its native fountain — 



but by the means presently to be explained, num- 

 bers of plants, neither " mean " nor " vile," but of 

 the highest order of beauty and fragrance, and 

 clothed with the sweetest associations, may be seen 

 to greater perfection, wild as weeds, in the spaces 

 now devoted to rank grass and weeds in our shrub- 

 beries, ornamental plantations, and by wood walks, 

 than ever they were in our gardens. 



My reasons for advocating this system, as I do. 



