THE GARDEN BEAUTIFUL. 



299 



by those who plant the wood for beauty, but 1 

 by the men who look to their woods for profit ; 

 only in doing their work in the simplest way 

 they find the palm of beauty too. But thishappy 

 escape cannot be where the underwood plan is 

 a never-ending nuisance with its cutting up of 

 woods and drives, the underwood cutters in re- 

 cent years remaining in the woods for more than 

 a year after the cutting ; which is wrong for 

 many reasons. If we wish to preserve some 

 underwood where there is good use for it, it is 

 easy to keep it towards the centre of the masses 

 otwood and so dispense with fencing from cat- 

 tle; or we may even grow it as at present with- 

 out sacrificing all our woodland scenery and 

 any hope of profit from woodland. Our way 

 in Britain of planting in skinny strips, instead 

 of massing the wood in any natural way, very 

 much adds to the cost and ugliness of the iron 

 fence ; both sides of the narrow strip of wood 

 being often fenced with iron, and on some es- 

 tates the money spent on this rubbish of iron 

 and wire would suffice to plant all the poor 

 land of a parish. 



These words are written in a grassy glade 

 of about a dozen acres set in the woods of the 

 Bohemian hills. Falling gently to the west it is 

 embosomed in close-set young trees — Spruce, 

 Birch, Scotch and Silver Fir ; there is no stiff 

 or hard line to be seen ; the glade is fringed as 

 it might be in a natural forest. This glade is as 

 easy to mow as if it were fenced in the stiffest 

 way ; it could be grazed without danger, as there 

 is no underwood near. The work of the wood- 

 man around the glade (and there is a good deal 

 of winter work in woods where tall trees are set 

 close) is far more simply done than where, as in 

 many parts of Britain, access to every copse and 

 wood is barred with fencing. For days we pass 

 through such woodland and never see a fence. 

 When we leave the massed mountain woods, 

 and go into the open plain, with smallerwoods 

 here and there, cresting a hill or making the 

 best of a vein of poor land, it is just the same ; 

 there is no fence ; cattle or men may take shelter 

 or shade ; and as the margin of the plantation 

 is often free and varied, the effect is far better 

 than when the wood is held tight with a fence. 

 Certainly many of these are old woods, and 

 when planting in an open country, with cattle 

 grazing on all sides, we cannot hope to get free 

 at once from a great evil ; but if we deal with 



vigorous trees only, a few years' good growth 

 will make them safe, and tall trees do not tempt 

 cattle as do the shoots of the underwood. And 

 if there be grazing creatures about, why should 

 not the welcome shade of the wood be free to 

 them on hot days and its shelter on wintry ones 

 if no harm come therefrom ? * * * 



THE SWEET VIOLET AND ITS 

 VARIETIES. 



Everyone loves the Violet withits quiet beau- 

 ty, itsmessage ofoncomingspring,anditsready 

 response totheearlysunfrom its nook amongst 

 thescattered leavesof thewoodorthe bowered 

 bank of the hedgerow. Time was, and not far 

 distant, when all alike were well content with 

 these wayside gatherings, but as the demand 

 increased the wild supplies failed, until the 

 Violet found a place in gardens as offering a 

 more assured harvest. And so began the slow 

 improvement of the flower,our choice enriched 

 in turn by the Violets of southern Europe and 

 of Russia. When the Second Empire reached 

 its height France became the centre of its cul- 

 ture, and the first perpetual and large-flowered 

 varieties were raised by the market growers ot 

 Paris, Souvenir de Millet pere being the earliest 

 gain of these growers. This first step gained 

 others quickly followed in the Czar, and Gloire 

 deBourg la Reine, of the large-flowered section, 

 and similar improvement in the perpetual- 

 flowered {Violette de quatre saisons) and the 

 Parma Violet classes. At short intervals there 

 followed sortslike Luxonne, Wellsiana, and that 

 fine Violet Princess of Wales, the advent ot 

 which, with their great size and lengthof stem, 

 led to further demand for the flower. From 

 this time the number of new kinds has yearly 

 increased until the garden Violet of to-day is 

 hardly traceable in its lowly woodland form ; 

 yet the increase in size of petal, length of stem, 

 and season of bloom, has been gained with little 

 if any loss of beauty of form or fragrance. 

 Within the last few years there has arisen in 

 some quarters a taste for Tree-Violets, in which 

 infinite pains are wasted to induce an ugly and 

 unnatural stem between the roots and the leaf- 

 crown : it is a pity that growers cannot find 

 something better to do. 



Except in favoured districts or mild seasons 

 Violets do not flower in the open with freedom 

 till spring is well advanced, and for this reason 



