THOUGHTS ON GARDENING 83 



Whilst thinking of the influence of gardening 

 upon the health, and the need for patience to 

 get this full value of so ennobling a pursuit, one 

 may well look back over the past fifty years and 

 consider the tremendous strides that have been 

 made by the traveller and the hybridist to make 

 our gardens what they are in the present age. An 

 increasing love of an outdoor life and of consider- 

 ations of health are not alone responsible for the 

 national interest in the art of gardening. There is 

 something else underlying this remarkable awaken- 

 ing, and that is the great work, too lightly regarded 

 by the public generally, not through want of appre- 

 ciation but from ignorance, that has been and is 

 being accomplished by enthusiastic amateurs and 

 nurserymen of the latter part of the last century, 

 a work far from having attained full fruition. 



The British race is without rival in the realms 

 of horticulture. We know this to be true from a 

 comparison that can be made between the flower 

 exhibitions in this country and abroad, and when 

 this inevitable conclusion has been arrived at, it is 

 no detriment to the work that has been accom- 

 plished by hybridists in other lands. France we 

 thank for the exquisite hybrid roses that grace our 

 gardens, for the great work of Lemoine, Latour- 



