PREFACE 



THE following papers have been written 

 during a last illness, which has often 

 made it impossible to examine the 

 specimens I could have wished. In 

 the Primrose, for example, I have only been 

 able to make out satisfactorily the drooping 

 aspect of the leaf: how this combines itself 

 with the more rigid character in the different 

 stages of the leaf I do not fully understand. 

 For the same reason many of the illustrations, 

 especially in the chapters on Gardening, have 

 been selected as being the most ready to hand 

 rather than as the best. In my remarks on 

 Gardening I have no wish at all to disparage 

 the modem systems. • My aim chiefly was to 

 point out the faults of modern gardening, be- 

 cause its merits are such as it is impossible 

 to overlook. Lastly, in many instances my 

 remarks bear more or less reference to the 

 works of Ruskin, the greatest and best of 



