EXPLANATORY. 5 
thrive much better in rough and wild places than ever they 
did in the old-fashioned border. Even comparatively small 
ones, like the ivy-leaved Cyclamen, a beautiful plant that we 
rarely find in perfection in gardens, I have seen perfectly 
naturalised and spread all over the mossy surface of a thin 
wood. 
Secondly, because they will look infinitely better than ever 
they did in gardens, in consequence i 
of fine-leaved plant, fern, anid tower, 
and climber, grass 
and trailing shrub, 
relieving each other 
in ways innumerable 
and delightful. Any 
one of a thousand 
combinations will 4 RSa cm Sl 9 ad 
prove as far superior —— 
to any aspect of the 
old mixed border, or 
the ordinary type of 
-oar- 
modern flower gar A “mixed border” with tile edging, the way in which the 
7] beautiful hardy flowers of the world have been grown in 
den, Hes # lovely gardens hitherto, when grown at all. (Sketched in a 
mountain valley to = /*s¢ sarden, 3878.) 
a piece of the “ black country.” 
Thirdly, because, arranged as I propose, no disagreeable 
effects result from decay. The raggedness of the old mixed 
border after the first flush of spring and early summer bloom 
had passed was intolerable, bundles of decayed stems tied to 
sticks, making the place look like the parade-ground of a 
number of crossing -sweepers. When Lilies are sparsely 
