xiv Preface 



might be naturalized, with a very slight amount of 

 trouble, in many situations in our plantations, fields, 

 and woods — a world of delightful plant beauty that 

 we might in these ways make happy around us. 

 We can not only grow thus a thousandfold more 

 lovely flowers than were seen in flower gardens, but 

 also many which, by any other plan, have no chance 

 of being seen in gardens. 



In this edition, by the aid of drawings, I have tried 

 to tell what the system is ; — if I were to write a book 

 for every page that this contains, I could not suggest 

 the many beautiful aspects of vegetation which the 

 Wild Garden may give us. 



The illustrations are, with a few exceptions, the work 

 of Mr. Alfred Parsons, and the drawing and engraving 

 have been several years in execution. They are after 

 nature, in places where the ideas expressed in the first 

 small edition of the book had been carried out, or 

 where accident, as in the case of the beautiful group 

 of Myrrh and white Harebells at Cambridge, had 

 given rise to beautiful plant pictures. I cannot too 

 heartily thank him for the skill which he devoted to 

 the drawings, and for his success in showing the 

 motive of the 'Wild Garden.' 



There has been some misunderstanding as to the 

 term 'Wild Garden.' It is apphed essentially to the 

 placing of perfectly hardy exotic plants under conditions 



