OLD-FASHIONED FLOWERS 



the Flower of the Vines ; it is a little Dust, like the Dust 

 of a Bent, which grows upon the cluster at the first 

 coming forth. Then Sweet-Briar, then Wall-Flowers, 

 which are very delightful to be set under a Parlour, or 

 lower Chamber Window. Then Pinks, especially the 

 Matted Pink, and Clove Gilly - Flower. Then the 

 Flowers of the Lime-Tree. Then the Honey-Suckles, 

 so they be somewhat afar ofF. . . . But those which 

 perfume the Air most delightfully, not passed by as the 

 rest, but being Trodden upon and Crushed, are three : 

 that is Burnet, Wild-Time, and Water-Mints. There- 

 fore you are to set whole Alleys of them, to have the 

 Pleasure when you walk or tread." The essence of 



old-fashioned " gardening is here expressed. 



Our modern florists" are wont to sneer at the lack 

 of variety possessed by the old gardeners, but they must 

 be curiously unfamiliar with the writings of such men as 

 Gerard, Gilbert and Parkinson. To give but one or two 

 examples, the last named writer, in his Paradisi in Sole 

 Paradisus Terrestris,^ gives a descriptive list of twelve 

 distinct varieties of Fritillaries, eight varieties of Grape- 

 Hyacinths, and no less than twenty -one varieties of 

 Primroses and Cowslips, whilst of Lilies and of Roses 

 the kinds described are even more numerous. 



The greatest joy which a garden can yield is a feeling 

 of restfulness and peace, a feeling which no garden of 

 staring beds and ostentatious splendour can afford, but 

 which is yielded — as by nothing else in the world — by 

 a garden of happy, homely, old-fashioned flowers. 



To most people, and more particularly to most women, 

 one of the chief uses or functions of a garden is to pro- 

 vide flowers to be cut for the decoration of rooms. But 

 I hold that a flower cut from its plant and placed in a 

 vase is as a scalp on the walls of a wigwam — a trophy 

 showing how one more beautiful plant has been defeated 

 and victimised by its powerful and tasteless owner. 



