PREFACE. vii 
There has been some misunderstanding as to the term 
“Wild Garden.” It is applied essentially to the placing of 
perfectly hardy exotic plants in places and under conditions 
where they will become established and take care of them- 
selves. It has nothing to do with the old idea of the 
“ wilderness,” though it may be carried out in connection 
with that. It does not necessarily mean the picturesque 
garden, for a garden may. be highly picturesque, and yet in 
every part the result of ceaseless care. What it does mean 
is best explained by the winter Aconite flowéring under 
a grove of naked trees in February; by the Snowflake 
growing abundantly in meadows by the Thames side; by the 
perennial Lupine dyeing an islet with its purple in a Scotch 
river; and by the Apennine Anemone staining an English 
wood blue before the blooming of our blue bells. Multiply 
these instances a thousandfold, illustrated by many different 
types of plants and hardy climbers, from countries as cold 
or colder than our own, and one may get a just idea 
of the wild garden. Some have erroneously represented 
it as allowing a garden to run wild, or sowing annuals 
promiscuously ; whereas it studiously avoids meddling with 
the garden proper at all, except in attempting the improve- 
ments of bare shrubbery borders in the London parks and 
elsewhere ; but these are waste spaces, not gardens. 
I wish it to be kept distinct in the mind from the various 
important phases of hardy plant growth in groups, beds, and 
borders, in which good culture and good ‘taste may produce 
