Faults in Gardening 



Note i 



The best plants for gardens are Euro- 

 pean or quasi- European species, because 

 these are the most congenial to our soil 

 and climate, and the most perfectly in- 

 telligible to us in their habits and mode 

 of growth. But how many people can 

 have any clear idea as to what Geraniums 

 or Calceolarias would look like, or try to 

 do, where they grow wild and free? I 

 myself continually feel, as in the case of 

 the Chinese Primrose, that such ignorance 

 is a great bar to my enjoyment of the 

 flower, and the knowledge is scarcely to 

 be got from books. Yet it must always 

 be distinctly borne in mind that Art is 

 not Nature. Let people create beauty 

 howsoever they please, and of whatsoever 

 materials, we must not blame them unless 

 we can show that their method is in- 

 jurious. But I do blame the modern 

 taste as tyrannous and exclusive, casting 

 out just the plants which should be 

 dearest to us, to make room for those 

 which can never come so near to heart. 

 Think of gardeners stigmatising, as I am 

 told is the case, the Lilac and Laburnum 

 as plebeian ! — the Laburnum, the fair- 



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