March 14, 1903. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
225 
The World of Gardening. 
By F. W. Burbidge, M.A., Y.M.H. 
The gift of expression, whether innate or acquired, or both 
born good and made more or less perfect, is a precious heritage 
that, like health and beauty, no money can buy. It is mind 
able to speak to other minds in world-wide languages, like 
sculpture, painting, or music and literature. Even still the 
art of Egypt, Greece, and Italy speaks to us across the lapse 
of centuries as clear, as fresh, and as beautiful as ever, though 
Queen Hatsu, Thotlmies III., Phidias, and Praxiteles, Homer, 
Dante, and Virgil are themselves nothing but dust to-day. 
Look at our English poets and playwrights—Chaucer, Shake¬ 
speare, Spenser, and many more, down to Tennyson—all gifted 
in putting “ the sweetest words the sweetest way ” in poetry 
and song. 
Take again the prose mathematics of Newton, the science of 
Darwin, and the soul-inspiring writings of John Ruskin, men 
who revolutionised the world of thought in their own times, and 
whose work will act like yeast ferments in men and women’s 
lives in the centuries to come. The gift of expression is, in 
human life, like sunshine to the universe; it ennobles and 
brightens everything it touches, and it really represents the 
golden harvest of the mind as garnered for us all down the ages 
of real things. Expression is a subtle and immortal essence, 
ind preserves for us the youth and beauty and the wisdom of 
:he past, while also illuminating the present a hundredfold. 
Men and women of virile intelligence are always yearning to 
mow what was, what is, and what will be ; news of the past, 
he present, and signs of what is to come, for the Witch of Endor 
s not yet dead, and people are still looking for a sign even 
n the enlightened twentieth century. 
This is true of all the arts and sciences, and as true of garden 
■raft as it is of other things. 
So far as the gardener is concerned, the principal modes of 
expression open to him are speech, writing, and drawing, and 
le ought to make sure of a moderate amount of facility in them 
ill as aids to his future progress. Speech is So universal in its 
lse that we are but too apt to neglect any attempt to develop 
>r improve it as we ought to do. As bread must be nourish- 
ng, so speech ought of all things to be clear and easily under- 
tood. A low, clear, and decided voice is a great blessing, and 
here are known instances in which it has helped gardeners to 
ise to what for them were eminent positions. 
There is a tradition that young Joseph Paxton was one day 
vorking in the Chiswick Gardens of the Horticultural Society, 
vhen his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, who had a private 
■ey, came through from Chiswick House, where he resided at 
imes. He wanted a light for his cigar, and asked Paxton to 
procure one for him. This young Paxton did in such a 
aompt and pleasant way that "the Duke never lost sight of 
im. The Duke was slightly deaf, and Paxton’s clear and firm 
peech delighted him. We all know what followed—how a 
acancy occurred at Chatsworth, and how Paxton was at once 
ppointed by the Duke, t and bow famous the gardens there 
ecame in his hands. Then came the great exhibition of 1851 
Afterwards removed and re-erected at Sydenham as the “ Crys- 
d Palace ”), for which building in curved iron and glass Paxton 
lade the first rough sketch on a sheet of blotting paper. The 
lea of ribs of iron filled in wdth glass is said to have been 
junded on the hollow ribs and veins underneath the great 
:aves of the Victoria regia, so that we owe our first great erec- 
ons.in iron and glass to a.bit of “ nature study ” on the part 
t an ingenious and practical gardener. 
Paxton was lucky, some will say, but he really deserved to 
e fortunate. He worked and studied for it; his address and 
earing and education alike were far ahead of the usual average 
t his tune. He had clear and decided speech, he could write 
eaily and well, and he not only had good practical ideas, 
ut, as we have seen, he could express them clearly, even on 
stray sheet of blotting-paper. He did not waste time in look¬ 
ing for drawing materials, but took the first practical materials 
that came to his hand. 
Many a good man, and good gardener too, have excellent 
ideas, but they often lack the power of expressing them just 
at the right moment of time when listeners are receptive. 
They let the iron get cold before they strike. Some with useful 
and practical notions have not the courage of their opinions; 
they defer the matter to “ a more convenient season,” which 
often means a time that never comes. 
Clear speech, clear writing, and the power of making rough 
working drawings to scale, or freehand sketches, are, or ought 
to be, looked upon as the birthright of all craftsmen, and to 
none are they of more value and real service than to gardeners, 
be they young or old. We may none of us ever become great 
and soul-moving orators, or great writers in the literary world, 
or highly-accomplished artists. The very highest degree in 
these arts is not necessary to gardeners, but they must carry 
each to its most useful point of excellence to them in their 
work, leaving the expression of their highest beauty to those 
who devote all their time and ability. 
“ Nature study ” is by some thought to be a new system in 
schools, and so it may be in many of them, but a gardener’s 
The Basque Flower (Anemone Pulsatilla.) (See page 228.) 
whole life is begun and spent in studying nature from a good 
many practical points of view. So in schools children should 
be taught first to see and think about real simple things—a 
root, a leaf, a flower, leading up to a domestic bird or animal. 
The teacher must be a good observer, and at first must, as it 
were, lend his pupil his own eyes and thoughts. Then the 
pupil should be encouraged to describe what and how much 
is actually seen, clearly spoken in words, then to write a short 
and clear account of the facts observed, and, finally, to make 
a rough sketch on a slate, or with pencil on paper, of the object. 
In some ca s es a rough model in clay, to show substance, may 
be made as well, but to see, to think, to describe, and to sketch 
are the real essentials, and there is nothing like nature study 
for teaching the elementary arts of expression that become so 
highly essential in after life to us all. Expression of the best 
can only come or be obtained in one way, and the only way 
in this case is clear observation or right seeing, with the accom¬ 
paniment of attentive thought. An old author once said that 
“ easy or facile writing was very hard reading, and this is 
often true. The tongue, if unrestrained by thought, runs away 
■with the orator, the pen with the writer, and the pencil or brush 
with the painter, and the result is, of course, bad, because it 
is thoughtless work, and useless to those who hear or read 
