i3° 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



ourselves in the main, central, and ex- 

 posed hill regions of our country — those 

 which for their value for good air and 

 picturesque beauty are likely now, and 

 more and more in the future, to be pre- 

 ferred for the home life. It is that we 

 should more than ever turn our thoughts 

 to all things, from tree to rock-flower, 

 that delight in our climate, not merely 

 existing in it but showing us their whole 

 beauty. And it is a large host we have to 

 draw upon, many of them not to be had 

 in every nursery — and whole groups, 

 neglected or forgotten, like the Honey- 

 suckles of which we only see one or two 

 kinds in most gardens. We have to think, 

 too, apart from our own rewards, of the 

 delight and the beauty of the northern 

 and mountain plants to those new-come 

 to us from favoured winter regions that 

 get burned up in summer. And beauty? 

 Why where can we seek anything higher 

 than that of the trees and flowers of the 

 northern mountains of Europe, Asia, 

 and America — the home and source of 

 all good things for cool countries? More 

 than in any land of Europe and America 

 our country has the great privilege of 

 growing the alpine flowers — the fairest 

 of all. It should be our first care to do 

 well those lovely things that grow so 

 freely with us, owing to our climate being 

 so like that of much of the mountain 

 lands of central Europe. Roses andLilies, 

 Carnations and Pansies, Water -Lilies 

 and Phlox that in the hot southern re- 

 gions pass away from the land with the 

 last clouds of early summer— all such 

 are happy with us throughout the sum- 

 mer and far into the autumn, and gar- 

 dens that do not rely upon the beauty of 



these and their many allies are gardens 

 of wasted effort. 



That is the best that can be said for 

 the popular way of growing half-hardy 

 plants to put out for a few months in 

 summer as we see in the West-end Lon- 

 don parks, and in many costly gardens, 

 both public and private. The assump- 

 tion in these gardens is that we cannot 

 make flower-gardens without" bedding 

 out" and " mosaiculture" and like at- 

 tempts to conform a living thing such 

 as a garden to carpet-makers' ideas in 

 decoratingplane surfaces. Thatassump- 

 tion is demonstrably wrong and inartis- 

 tic, the truth being the opposite — that 

 you can never realise the Garden Beau- 

 tiful with any such aids. % ^ ^ 



WALL GARDENS. 



Amongst the many lovely scenes offered 

 us by that greatest of artists, Nature, few 

 are finer than those which she creates 

 upon the rocks of the mountain side, and 

 even upon old walls. There is no more 

 beautiful picture than that of an old wall 

 draped with flowers, hung with wild 

 garlands, and for its background the 

 outline of a noble tree. I well remember 



i how, as a lad of ten, I was filled with 

 admiration for those old terrace walls 

 upon the vine-clad slopes which fringe 

 the lakes of Geneva and Neuchatel, and 

 how much time (in the opinion of my 

 tutors) I was wont to waste among them. 

 To the poetic mind there is a great 

 charm in the sight of these weathered 

 blocks, animated, as it were, by plants 

 and beautified with lichen, leaf, and 

 flower. From the graceful curve of 



I an Acanthus-leaf straining against an 



