i6o 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



trees and shrubs that are the glory of 

 the grove and copse in all northern 

 countries. Or we might have a square 

 or park mainly of British trees and 

 shrubs, another of European, another of 

 American, and so on. In such ways we 

 might help the various superintendents 

 to more individuality, and so free them 

 from paltry rivalry with one another in 

 the matter of " bedding plants." They 

 could then take up subjects best suited 

 to the ground, and develop their beauty 

 and variety to the completest extent of 

 their knowledge. In the vast expanse 

 of our public gardens there is not one 

 interesting branch of arboriculture or 

 flower culture which we could not de- 

 velop in a way hitherto unexampled. 

 On our botanic gardens already in exist- 

 ence (most of them not large enough for 

 the proper grouping and arrangement 

 of one single family of trees) this system 

 would have the best results. It would re- 

 move the necessity of cramming every 

 available plant or tree into a small space, 

 and permit of their curators devoting 

 adequate attention to the many tribes 

 of plants which require continual care 

 or renewal. 



Few of our botanic gardens at pre- 

 sent give much idea of the variety and 

 beauty of trees, and none gives any 

 worthy expression of even the vegeta- 

 tion of Europe alone ! What do we see 

 of the beauty and character of any one 

 large family of trees by planting them 

 all at regular intervals over a plot, or in 

 the various ways we see them arranged 

 in botanic gardens ? The common way 

 with botanic gardens would be right if 

 we had no higher object than to pro- 



cure specimens to illustrate the gram- 

 mar of the nomenclature men have 

 given plants. But if our aim be to show 

 the beauty and dignity of the vegetable 

 kingdom, we must set ourselves free 

 from such small notions. Clearly, the 

 way to do this is to treat our vast series 

 of gardens as a whole, and stamp on 

 each some marked feature- — from the 

 smallest square, with Ivies or Haw- 

 thorns, to the great park, adorned with 

 the trees of a hundred hills. 



In every direction distinct types of 

 vegetation might be met with, instead 

 of the "universal mixture" now every- 

 where seen, which so soon trains the eye 

 to take no more notice of trees or plants 

 than of the railings around the squares. 

 It is not, like many of the changes we 

 longfor in towns, impossible to carry out 

 from want of means. The adoption of it 

 would at once tend to make the money 

 so freely spent on our public gardens go 

 toward valuable results, and might easily 

 free us from the present way of devoting 

 vast sumstothegrowthof tender plants, 

 and even, as in the case above pointed 

 out, disfiguring one of the noblest parks 

 in the endeavour to get them. — W. R. 



The Language of Flowers. — " Nature flings 

 her flowery carvings everywhere, each one 

 complete and fresh and perfect, and such a joy 

 that, were it the lone one of its race, it would 

 draw the nations into pilgrimage for its wor- 

 ship. She paints them, too ; she gives them 

 colour. If any seem ugly as a whole, take a 

 fragment and put it under a microscope, . . . 

 under the lens a quarter inch of rosy petal 

 flushes and spreads like a sunset sky. And then 

 instead of speech she gives them fragrance 

 . . . unless, indeed, Huxley's fancy be true, 

 and by ears fine enough a voice could also 

 be heard, as of a stream murmuring through 

 secret channels." — W. C. G. 



