Shrubbery, Plantation, and Wood 85 



Violet runs riot, and forms the densest kind of matted sod, 

 all bespeckled with yellow blossoms before a tree has 

 spread a leaf. When Blackberry bushes get a growing and 

 sprawling everywhere, the trees expand their leafy shade, 

 and grass and weeds grow up and cover the surface of the 

 earth, it is all too late for evil, the early flowers' mission 

 for a year is ended ; it has blossomed and retired.' — 

 W. Falconer. 



The Wood Wild Garden. 



Longleat is one of the first places in which the 

 idea of the wild garden in English woods was ably 

 carried out by the late forester, Mr. Berry. With 

 such a fine variety of surface and soil, the place 

 offers many positions in which the plants of other 

 countries as cold as our own could be so planted 

 that they would take care of themselves in the woods. 

 A forester's duties make it difficult for him to carry 

 out such an idea, and even to know the plants 

 that are likely to succeed is in itself a knowledge 

 which every planter does not possess ; however, the 

 idea was clearly understood and carried out well, 

 so far as possible in the face of rabbits, which are 

 the great destroyers of almost all ground vegetation. 

 To get the necessary quantities of plants, a little 

 nursery in which could be raised numbers of the 

 more vigorous perennials, bulbs and climbers was 

 required. If the Wild Garden is to be carried out on 

 the old dotting principle of the herbaceous border, 



