THOUGHTS ON GARDENING 85 



be grown. What a pleasure it is to watch for the 

 flowering of a batch of young plants from carefully 

 selected seed, or perhaps from seed specially fertilised 

 in order to drive the strain in the desired track ; 

 and how the pleasure is increased as year after year 

 it becomes better and answers to the careful efforts 

 directed by the intelligent observation of the 

 plants' capabilities, and by good taste in the object 

 aimed at ! 



But the raiser of new flowers is not always filled 

 with a desire for the beautiful only. There are 

 false ideals. Nothing is more frequent in seed lists 

 than to find the words " dwarf and compact " used 

 in praise of some annual plant, and used with an air 

 of conviction, as if to say, " There ! Now we have 

 got it 1 Dwarf and compact ! We have done our 

 duty by it ; purchase it, grow it, and be happy." 



Is it an ungenerous and ungrateful act on the 

 part of some of us that we are not content to 

 accept "dwarf and compact" as the end of all 

 beauty ? Is it not rather, as we venture to think, 

 a question that demands the most careful considera- 

 tion and the exercise of the most well-balanced 

 judgment in the case of each individual kind of 

 plant that is commonly grown for the adornment 

 of our gardens ? 



