86 The Wild Garden 



its charming effects cannot be realized. To do it 

 rightly we must group and mass as Nature does. 

 Though we may enjoy a single flower or tuft here 

 and there, the true way is to make pretty colonies 

 of plants, one or two kinds prevailing in a spot; in 

 that way we may secure distinct effects in each place, 

 and better means of meeting the wants of a plant, 

 inasmuch as, dealing with a colony we can easily 

 see the result of putting the plants in any soil or 

 place. Among the plants used are vigorous hardy 

 climbers on old trees. Thorn and other bushes of 

 little value — Japanese and other Honeysuckles, Vir- 

 ginian creepers. Clematis, Wistarias and others. A 

 part of the arboretum is devoted to these plants, and 

 forms a wild garden, where the Poet's Narcissus may 

 be found among Sweet Briers, Lilacs and many kinds 

 of fragrant shrubs and stout perennials. While carry- 

 ing out wild gardening, pure and simple — that is to 

 say, the naturahzation of foreign hardy plants — beautiful 

 native kinds were also planted when not naturally 

 wild in the neighbourhood. Thus the Lily of the 

 Valley has been brought in quantities and planted 

 wide along the drives, and so have the Meadow 

 Saffrons and the Snowflakes and Daffodils. To group 

 and scatter these in a natural and pretty way has 

 required care, the tendency of the men being, almost 

 in spite of themselves, to plant in stiff and set or too 

 regular masses. 

 Few things are more delightful to anybody who 



