192 WOOD AND GARDEN 



kind. Nothing much was thought of but bedding 

 plants, and there was a rather large space on each side 

 of the house for these, one on gravel and one on turf. 

 But I had my own little garden in a nook beyond the 

 shrubbery, with a seat shaded by a Boursault elegans 

 Rose, which I thought then, and still think, one of the 

 lovehest of its kind. But my first knowledge of garden 

 plants came through wild ones. Some one gave me 

 that excellent book, the Rev. C. A. Johns' " Flowers of 

 the Field." For many years I had no one to advise 

 me (I was still quite small) how to use the book, or 

 how to get to know (though it stared me in the face) 

 how the plants were in large related families, and I 

 I had not the sense to do it for myself, nor to learn the 

 introductory botanical part, which would have saved 

 much trouble afterwards; but when I brought home 

 my flowers I would take them one by one and just 

 turn over the pages till I came to the picture that 

 looked something like. But in this way I got a know- 

 ledge of individuals, and afterwards the idea of broad 

 classification and relationship of genera to species may 

 have come aU the easier. I always think of that book 

 as the most precious gift I ever received. I distinctly 

 trace to its teaching my first firm steps in the path of 

 plant knowledge, and the feeling of assured comfort I 

 had afterwards in recognising the kinds when I came 

 to collect garden plants; for at that time I had no 

 other garden book, no means of access to botanic 

 gardens or private collections, and no helpful adviser, 



