Flowers and Gardens 



the bracken and the gorse, and all its 

 other friends. And the Bluebell fails in 

 our gardens, not solely because it is 

 thrown back on its own unassisted merits, 

 but partly because it is dragged from 

 its destined sphere of display. Plant 

 it by the side of Scilla campanulata — 

 the common garden bell which so much 

 resembles it, though it has dark red 

 stamens, and larger, wider-open flowers 

 — and I think that most people will 

 prefer the Scilla ; partly, no doubt, 

 because the Bluebell is an English flower, 

 but partly, too, because the Scilla, though 

 in itself less beautiful, has a beauty more 

 adapted to the garden, and which loses 

 far less than the Bluebells by being 

 isolated. I feel confident that our verdict 

 would be reversed, if we could compare 

 the plants as they grow wild. 



The Bluebell and Foxglove are in 

 themselves not unfit for gardens, or as 

 illustrations of my argument they would be 

 worthless. They become objectionable 

 there, mainly because they are common 

 native plants, with strong local associations, 

 and grow, at full advantage, wild. 



My conclusion, then, is, let the Garden 

 be to the Wild idem in altera ; that is to 

 say, let it be mainly stocked with plants of 

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