BRITISH WILD FLOWERS IN THE GARDEN. 



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BRITISH WILD FLOWERS IN THE GARDEN. 

 By J. W. Odell, F.R.H.S. 



[Lecture delivered November 10, 1908.] 



With all the wealth of hardy and alpine plants from the remotest parts 

 of the world at our disposal, and with collectors continually sending 

 home new and little-known species for our gardens, it may probably 

 seem that to draw attention to purely British plants for garden decoration 

 is to ignore to some extent the great advantages we enjoy for enriching 

 the hardy flora of the garden. Allow me, therefore, to say I am not in 

 any way suggesting anything so insular as to give preferential treatment 

 to Britishers over the thousands of lovely plants from other lands which 

 have found a home in our herbaceous borders, rockery, and water gardens. 

 To do so would be foreign to the true aims of horticulture. 



I do, however, venture to claim for our native plants some measure 

 of attention, and to urge that, where circumstances will permit, they 

 should be fostered ; and I am strongly of opinion that, beautiful as are 

 the older favourites of the borders, there are potential beauties yet 

 unknown in many of our British plants if they are given the cultivation 

 and attention so freely lavished on others from over the seas. 



I feel confident that when this attention is given it will result in the 

 production of plants attractive enough to justify their inclusion in the 

 garden and to add interest and character to their environment. 



There are, of course, a few of our wild flowers that always have been 

 and always will be grown and treasured in our gardens, and we grow 

 them, not so much because of their British origin as by reason of their 

 intrinsic worth and beauty. This is especially true in reference to our 

 wild trees and shrubs, for, from the flowering of the willows to the last 

 blossom of the elder, we have a long succession of flowering trees and 

 shrubs of no doubtful British origin. 



Is there a more lovely sight, in late spring or early summer, than a 

 fine wild cherry {Primus Avium) in full flower? A typical picture of 

 strength and beauty, a beauty unsurpassed even by its brilliant autumnal 

 colouring. Its first cousin the bird cherry (P. Padus) is not, perhaps, 

 so brilliantly beautiful, and is less aggressive in its habit of growth, but 

 it is more lasting, and a tree worth a place in every collection. 



The common crab {Pyrus Malus), although surpassed by some of the 

 cultivated varieties of crab in neatness of habit and depth of colour, yet 

 is a most attractive object in the hedgerows, and, when given a place 

 in the wild garden or the outskirts, well repays the favour of admission 

 by its pinkish- white shower of petals and its pale yellow fruits in the 

 autumn. 



Out of pure gratitude for the many beautiful forms of flowering 

 thcrr.s, the common hawthorn {Crataegus Oxyacantha) ought to have 

 a place in the garden. To clip it and keep it as a mere hedge plant is, 



