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free to itself. Even when an old tree falls and tosses 

 up a mass of soil and roots the wild gardener is 

 ready with some handsome Bramble or wild Vine to 

 scramble over the stem. Ferns are at home here in the 

 shady corners ; all the strong hardy kinds may be so 

 grown, and they look better among the flowers than 

 in the ' hardy Fernery ' so called. Even more graceful 

 than the Ferns, and in some cases more useful, because 

 they send up their plume-like leaves very early in the 

 year, are the giant Fennels (Ferula), which grow well 

 here, and hold their own easily among the strongest 

 plants. The common Fennel is also here, but it seeds 

 so freely that it becomes a weed, and overruns plants 

 of greater value. Such plants as Heracleum, Willow 

 Herb, and many others, which not only win, but destroy 

 all their fellows, in the struggle for life, should be 

 planted only in outlying positions, islands, hedges, and 

 small bits of isolated wood or copse, where their effects 

 might be seen in due season, and where they might 

 ramble without destroying. Rabbits— dreaded vermin 

 to the wild gardener— are kept out here effectually by 

 means of wire fencing. The presence of these pests 

 prevents all success in the wild garden. To succeed 

 with the wild garden, one should have a good collection 

 of hardy flowers from which it can be supplied. Here 

 one has been formed, consisting of about 1,100 species, 

 mostly arranged in borders. From these, from time to 

 time, over-vigoroifs and over-abundant kinds may be 

 taken to the wild garden. In a large collection one 



