BRITISH PLANTS. 
157 
botanical spirit. It is with their ornamental qualities, their capacity for improve- 
ment, and capability of contributing to the interest and effect of a garden, that we 
have now to deal. And who that has any knowledge of the spontaneous productions 
of British soil — the wild furniture of the hedge-rows, hills, and moors — will deny 
their merits and adaptability for such purpose ? 
Although, in the scattered and incongruous manner in which plants are usually 
found distributed in a state of nature, many British species individually possessed of 
flowers of considerable beauty and attractiveness fail to create a striking appearance, 
we cannot in all cases, on a strict consideration, attribute this inferiority to the 
exotics of our gardens to any superior inherent excellence which the latter possess. 
The various modes by which the cultivator ameliorates the character, and adds to the 
effect of the plants of other countries, will tell with equal certainty, and to a 
corresponding extent, on those of our own. To go no further, even, than to afford 
them the advantage of being collected into a mass, we need seek no other proof of 
their showiness than a reference to some of those species which are more commonly 
met with naturally growing somewhat compactly in large numbers, of which we may 
instance the yellow clusters of Daffodils [Narcissus pseudo-narcissus), the fine blue 
flowers of the wild Hyacinth (Scilla nutans), so prevalent in our woods in spring, 
and the snowy patches of Saxifraga granulata, which adorn many of our mountain 
pastures. 
Every gardener is familiar with the dazzling effect of a bed of scarlet Verbenas, 
and the comparative poverty of their appearance as single specimens scattered here 
and there ; and many occupiers of the parterre, separately less beautiful than the 
Verbena, when planted in sufficient numbers and proximity to supply a moderate 
unbroken breadth of colour, contribute an effect that could scarcely be imagined from 
the character of individual specimens. To the neglect then of extending the system 
of grouping adopted with exotics to native species, we may safely and unreservedly 
ascribe their less conspicuous effect. It has been too much the practice where 
collections of indigenous plants have been cultivated, to adopt a systematic scientific 
arrangement, and consequently one or two specimens alone of each kind have been 
preserved together. Now, although we do not mean to dispute the utility or oppose 
the plan of planting collections expressly for a botanical end, we must nevertheless 
object to such arrangements being referred to, as a test of the capacity of British 
plants for contributing an ornamental feature to the pleasure-ground, or adopted as a 
means of creating it to the exclusion of other and more effective plans. 
Assuming the system of bringing together a mass of the same species as the 
first and most important step towards enhancing the value attached to native plants 
as an addition to the garden, we will now proceed to the consideration of the next 
matter that we have proposed to treat upon in the present article — their capacity 
for improvement. And here we have to regret that, whilst the florist has been 
assiduously directing his skill and knowledge to the acquirement of an improved 
race of flowers, by mingling the characters of different plants with a view to concen- 
