204 The Wild Garden. 



being studded here and there with small stones, 

 among and around which this lovely plant made 

 its way and flowered " deeply, darkly, beautifully 

 blue" every season. It is abundant in mountain 

 pastures in central and southern Europe ; it is, in 

 fact, a true Alpine, and may now be had in various 

 nurseries. 



The Marsh Gentian (G. Pneumonanthe) is also 

 a lovely plant, more so perhaps than many would 

 think this dull clime capable of producing. It 

 should have a moist spot in a border, and is not 

 difficult to find in the north of England ; it also 

 grows, though less plentifully, in central or southern 

 England. The Brighton Horticultural Society is 

 in the habit of giving prizes for collections of wild 

 plants, and thereby doing much harm by causing 

 a few rude collectors, anxious to win a few shillings, 

 to gather bunches of the rarest wild flowers, and 

 perhaps exterminate them from their only habitats. 

 When at one of its meetings a few years ago, I 

 observed among the collections competing for a 

 paltry prize large bunches of this beautiful Gentian, 

 which had been pulled up by the roots, to form 

 one of one hundred or more bunches of wild 

 flowers torn up by one individual. To exhibit our 

 wild flowers at a " flower show," where they are 



