INTRODUCTION 
Mrs M artineau has asked me to write an intro- 
duction to her book ; and though she is well 
able to take her own stand among the flowers, 
I do so with pleasure in the hope of helping 
the movement. These plants seem to be com- 
ing to their true place in our gardens. When, 
many years ago, I began to disturb people’s 
mind about them, there were few good com- 
pared with what there are now. The borders 
were poor and full of plants of little value, like 
the poorest of poor starworts, and plants of 
no character ; but now the rich uplands of 
China, the beautiful plants of the American 
Pacific Coast and of Siberia and Southern 
Russia, are coming to enrich our shores. In 
the old days when people were wild about 
bedding out and its charms, we had many of 
the best old things, from the pasque flower 
to the white lily, thrown away to make the 
garden blaze with red geranium, blue lobelia, 
and yellow calceolaria. 
XI 
