Part I. ALPINES IN MIXED BORDER. 43 



backward in the first respect, as they filled it with tall, weedy, 

 and strong Asters, Solidagos, and the like, possessing no merit, 

 and therefore soon brought the system into contempt. It is 

 undervalued by nearly everybody ; curators of botanic gardens 

 — the very men who ought to know and appreciate its merit — 

 have sneered at it ; great " bedding-out people " have given it no 

 mercy, when it was nearly or quite finished without their aid ; 

 and finally, the very people of whose gardens it was the life 

 and soul — the owners of small gardens — have come to turn 

 up their noses at it ; in a word, it is almost banished from 

 the land. 



Even yet, however, you may see a trace oi it about country 

 cottages, and nothing can be prettier than to find one surrounded 

 by a nice variety of hardy plants, from Roses and Honeysuckle to 

 double Saxifrage and Lily-of-the-valley ; but, unhappily, these 

 poor cottagers are also beginning to run after strange gods, as 

 would appear from the following extract from a letter addressed 

 by a Nottingham clergyman to the ' Field ' : — 



" It is, I confess, with deep regret that in the last few years 

 I have seen the ' posy gardens ' of several cottages in my parish 

 destroyed — the Moss-roses, Clove Carnations, aye, and the Lads- 

 love and the Cemon Thyme, rooted out, and their place supplied by 

 a ridiculous grass plat, with a hole in the centre, empty for eight 

 months in the year, and containing for the other four months 

 scarlet Geraniums and Verbenas purchased at sixpence each from 

 some neighbouring nursery, and forming a wretched parody upon 

 the ' masses of colour ' which weary my eyes and try my temper 

 when I am conducted by lady flriends through their blazing 

 parterres, which, notwithstanding their perpetual sameness, I am 

 expected to admire." 



Such is the happy result we have arrived at by " improving " 

 the flower-garden. Persons with houses and frames and other 

 garden conveniences can manage very well ; but what a sorry 

 thing it is to think that people with only means to grow hardy 

 flowers have rooted them out, and are obliged to buy or to beg a 

 few plants every spring ! For them the exquisite flora of the Alps 

 has no attractions. To them the vast families of plants that 

 garnish with unsurpassed beauty the woods and wilds of northern 

 and temperate climes offer not a sole specimen worthy of culti- 

 vation. But where is the interest or true beauty of their gardens ? 

 It does not exist ; and thus the delightful art of gardening has 



