THE VEGETATION OF THE ISLAND OF ST. LEGER. 



507 



only empirical, knowledge of tropical plantations. To him I owe the 

 being rendered independent of the conventional choice of plants used 

 (without the slightest discrimination) in the whole of this district. 

 But this man was slovenly, inducing the workmen under him to be 

 the same. This made work to be done over again, and after having 

 lost me lots of plants, he caused me useless outlay. 



To show to what an extent his carelessness went, I need only 

 mention the following fact: in order, if not to follow, at least not to 

 disturb the simple outlines of the nunnery, a formal row of twenty-two 

 Trachycarpus excelsa was planted along the one side of the alley 

 leading to the lake. These plants, when bought, were all of the 

 same height. The ground to receive them was supposed to have 

 been duly prepared during one of my absences from the islands, 

 so that, when the plants arrived, they had only to be lowered into 

 their places. All but one progressed equally well, but that one, 

 remaining obstinately beHnd the others, spoilt the intended symmetry 

 of the lot,»so that it was finally decided to take it up and replace it by 

 a new one as tall as the rest. When lifting it up, its main root was 

 found growing inside the broken-off neck of a large bottle, which the 

 poor plant had met with at about 1 foot below the surface and, as the 

 sharp part was turned uppermost, the glass pierced constantly deeper 

 and deeper into the root as it continued to grow : the man had either 

 not moved the earth deeper than that one foot, or had thrown it back 

 into the hole without any other preparation. 



The result of all this was the opening of my eyes to the fact that, 

 unless I myself, with even a superficial knowledge of things, could 

 supervise those workmen, my garden would never succeed; and I 

 was not long in finding out that it was useless to provide plants, even 

 at a high price, if the planting was not properly done. So I began 

 to study the subject myself as thoroughly as only a wistful amateur 

 could contrive to do. I procured good gardening books, preferring 

 primers, which taught me things from the starting points, and I 

 subscribed to gardening papers, amongst them to The Garden, 

 writing to and disturbing the then owner, Mr. W. Egbinson, very 

 often with what he must have considered the most futile of 

 questions. 



The consequence of all this was that I stopped my gardener short 

 and began first and foremost to provide the most essential of all 

 gardening requisites : good earth. 



There was, as I have already said, none to speak of on the island, 

 and the few poor, crippled, and stunted oaks were living on the very 

 problematical quantity of food they found between the chinks of the 

 rocks. 



Thus, while the soil was being brought in and the walks finished, 

 I began to decide on the choice of plants, according to the positions 

 which they would have to occupy after the walks had been laid out, 

 and the height of the plants, according to the level of the water. 



There thus arose, about the middle of the island and extending on 



