BEGINNING AND LEARNING 193 



One copy of " Johns '' I wore right out ; I have now 

 two, of which one is in its second binding, and is 

 always near me for reference. I need hardly say that 

 this was long before the days of the " English Flower- 

 Garden," or its helpful predecessor, "Alpine Plants."' 



By this time I was steadily coUecting hardy garden 

 plants wherever I could find them, mostly from cottage 

 gardens. Many of them were still unknown to me by 

 name, but as the collection increased I began to com- 

 pare and discriminate, and of various kinds of one plant 

 to throw out the worse and retain the better, and to 

 train myself to see what made a good garden plant, 

 and about then began to grow the large yellow and 

 white bunch Primroses, whose history is in another 

 chapter. And then I learnt that there were such 

 places (though then but few) as nurseries, where such 

 plants as I had been collecting ia the cottage gardens, 

 and even better, were grown. And I went to Osborne's 

 at Fulham (now all built over), and there saw the 

 original tree of the fine Ilex known as the Fulham 

 Oak, and several spring-flowering bulbs I had never 

 seen before, and what I felt sure were numbers of 

 desirable summer-flowering plants, but not then in 

 bloom. Soon after this I began to learn something 

 about Daffodils, and enjoyed much kind help from 

 Mr. Barr, visiting his nursery (then at Tooting) several 

 times, and sometimes combining a visit to Parker's 

 nursery just over the way, a perfect paradise of good 

 hardy plants. I shall never forget my first sight here 



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