INTRODUCTION. 1 



vii. 



in what is practically a new flower world, and this it is that gives modern gardening its 

 character. We feel that a pleasure garden is primarily a place for flowers, and it is to the 

 cultivation of these that a considerable part of this volume is directed. Intelligent understanding 

 of flowers and plants has led to the expansion of gardening efforts into new directions, already 

 suggested, for neither the formal gardeners with restricted possibilities, nor their early 

 successors, ever could attain distinction in pure flower gardening, or water, rock, or any 

 other special feature of gardening, outside the large effects they aimed to produce. 



But if the garden has a relation to time and the changing ideals of centuries, it has 

 necessarily its place in art, and therefore its function as a teacher and a sweetener of life. 

 Its office in the world is to give man the opportunity of winning Nature to himself, of 



expressing himself in Nature, 

 of developing his ideals in 

 natural beauty. In the garden 

 Nature responds to his over- 

 tures. Behind its green deni- 

 zens primal Nature lies, but 

 the gardener gives us Nature 

 selected, harmonised, invested 

 with new qualities, and led to 

 new conclusions. The things 

 we cherish in our wardens have 

 their originals and kindred 

 somewhere in wood, field, 

 swamp, or mountain-side; but 

 how has the gardener changed 

 and glorified them, how from 

 general qualities developed 

 particular beauties, how tamed 

 the rugged, strengthened the 

 weak, made durable the fleet- 

 ing ! These thoughts may 

 serve to suggest how reason- 

 able and natural is the love of 

 the garden, how ennobling is 

 our love for it, how healthy, 

 happy, and enduring are gar- 

 dening pursuits. 



" Not wholly in the busy world, nor 

 quite 



Beyond it, blooms the garden that I 

 love," 



writes the Poet Laureate ; hut, 

 wherever the garden may be, 

 it will have some atmosphere or character of its own. It may be large or small, it may lie in 

 tlie hollows of the hills, on the steep slope, or on the wind-blown crest; it may possess wood, 

 water, or heath ; it may have soil that is light and friable, or that is dense, heavy, and tenacious. 

 If it be only a suburban plot, and have neither hedgerow nor coppice, there are yet particular 

 qualities in it which it is the gardener's work to develop and unfold. Let him not be discouraged 

 if the garden be small. It may still be a kingdom all-sufficient in itself, where he may express 

 judgment in selection and combination, and use to excellent purpose the impressions and 

 experience he has been alert to receive. Better that it should be small than too large for 

 his mastery, where effort would be wasted and distinction never attained. A large, varied, 



WISTARIA SINENSIS. 



