INTRODUCTORY 5 



go by points which are defined arbitrarily and rigidly, 

 and have reference mainly to the show-table, leaving 

 out of account, as if unworthy of consideration, such 

 matters as gardens and garden beauty, and human 

 delight, and sunshine, and varying lights of morning 

 and evening and noonday. But many, both nursery- 

 men and private people, devote themselves to growing 

 and improving the best classes of hardy flowers, and 

 we can hardly offer them too much grateful praise, or 

 do them too much .honour. For what would our gar- 

 dens be without the Roses, Pseonies, and Gladiolus of 

 France, and the Tulips and Hyacinths of Holland, to 

 say nothing of the hosts of good things raised by our 

 home growers, and of the enterprise of the great firms 

 whose agents are always searching the world for garden 

 treasures ? 



Let no one be discouraged by the thought of how 

 much there is to learn. Looking back upon nearly 

 thirty years of gardening (the earlier part of it in 

 groping ignorance with scant means of help), I can 

 remember no part of it that was not full of pleasure 

 and encouragement. For the first steps are steps into 

 a delightful Unknown, the first successes are victories 

 all the happier for beiog scarcely expected, and with 

 the growing knowledge comes the widening outlook, 

 and the comforting sense of an ever-increasing gain of 

 critical appreciation. Each new step becomes a little 

 surer, and each new grasp a little firmer, till, httle by 

 little, comes the power of intelligent combination, the 



