The Wild Garden. 



charms we may yet see in little cottage gardens in 

 Kent, Sussex, and many other parts of England, 

 though the scarlet geranium has begun to eradicate 

 all the fair blossoms of many a sweet little garden, 

 once, and often yet, " embowered in fruit trees and 

 forest trees, evergreens and honeysuckles rising 

 many-coloured from amid shaven grass plots, flowers 

 struggling in through the very windows . . . where, 

 especially on long summer nights, a king might 

 have wished to sit and smoke and call it his." From 

 these little Elysiums, where the last glimpses of 

 beautiful old English gardening may yet be seen, 

 we will now turn to the modern system which re- 

 places it. 



About a generation ago a taste began to be 

 manifested for placing a number of tender plants in 

 the open air in summer, with a view to the produc- 

 tion of showy masses of decided colour. The sub- 

 jects selected were mostly from sub-tropical climates 

 and of free growth ; placed in the open air of our 

 genial early summer, and in fresh rich earth, every 

 year they grew rapidly and flowered abundantly 

 during the summer and early autumn months, 

 and until cut down by the first frosts. The bril- 

 liancy of tone resulting from this system was very 

 attractive, and since its introduction there has 



