320 
THE LATHES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
adopted home. The trees grew luxuriantly, but could 
not yield a product that was not in the atmosphere 
upon which the plant fed, any more than the metallur¬ 
gist can extract the precious metals from the rock that 
does not contain them. 
The cinchona is now grown in India, where malaria 
abounds in its most violent form, and there the tree pro¬ 
duces a bark more valuable than that obtained in its 
native home. 
The same principle is applicable to every plant and 
under all circumstances. It is the reason why the plum 
is an abundant crop in a given locality, and why the 
peach is not, and the reverse. It is the reason why either 
will thrive for a time in a certain locality and for a suc¬ 
cessive period fail; then again thrive and produce their 
richjffruits with all their former vigor. It is the reason 
why the rotation of crops is an agricultural necessity. 
When one kind of grain, vegetable or fruit has consumed 
all the food provided for its use, it will no longer succeed, 
and the practical horticulturist wisely accepts the situa¬ 
tion and cultivates some other crop. 
I have said this much to show you how much pleasure 
there may be derived from rural pursuits when prop¬ 
erly directed. There is not a blade of grass, a plant of 
any kind, but which furnishes food for thought or is 
loaded with instruction. The study of plants is more 
fascinating than any pleasure to be found away from the 
farm. But it must be taught aright. Show our children 
the beautiful there is in the plant, and they will never see 
the work that it costs to produce it. On the contrary, 
show them the work first and they will never behold the 
beautiful, but will leave rural pursuits for others requir¬ 
ing more labor and care without the certainty of a com¬ 
petence in life, and with it independence and content¬ 
ment. 
In conclusion allow me to quote from a book by Coul- 
tas, entitled “ What May be Learned from a Tree a 
book that every tiller of the soil should have. 
“ If you wish for peace and contentment of mind, study 
nature. You will be brought into communion with the 
infinite and the eternal. You will become temperate in 
your desires. You will love truth and righteousness. 
The contemplation of this majestic system of continuous 
and eternal change will give loftiness to your thought- ; 
free your mind from a groveling and ignorant supersti¬ 
tion; give you just, confiding, worthy views of your 
Creator, and enable you to march through life with a 
firm, with a manly step. This world is full of beauty 
but little understood or appreciated. An overflowing 
goodness has covered the earth with flowers and glorious 
forest trees, yet how few, comparatively speaking, care to 
know anything about them. We invite you to this grand 
and ancient library ; to the study of these volumes over¬ 
flowing with wisdom and instruction. It is not the mere 
study of nature, but the impressive lessons which she 
teaches. Thoughts of infinitude and eternity come to 
me from the distant stars and from the forms of vanished 
life laid up in the rocks, reminding me that my own life is 
fleeting and evanescent as the vapor of morning. The 
lofty tree with its wealth of branches and foliage perishes 
alike with one of the lowly, undistinguished blades of 
grass which it overshadows ; so none are so high or well 
known but they shall, ere long, lie low and be forgotten. 
And herein is seen the wisdom and equity of the arrange¬ 
ments of nature that all must submit to the same great 
laws of decay and dissolution. She shows, in this re¬ 
spect, no partiality. Superior talent, energy or social 
position may for a while elevate some fragments of hu¬ 
manity above their fellows, but all in the end are reduced 
to the same level.” 
A WILD GARDEN. 
M R. GEORGE F. WILSON says of his wild garden, 
which is situated at Heatherbank, Weybridge 
Heath, England, “ When I retired from a business which 
required close observation, many experiments and some 
invention, I had to seek fresh, healthy, useful occupation, 
and chose’.gardening, an old hobby, but which I had 
hitherto had little time to ride. In 1878 I bought a farm, 
a small part of which affords facilities for experiment, as 
it has many varieties of soil and different degrees of mois¬ 
ture. The land had not been thought much of in the 
neighborhood, as the rent was only 13s. qd. an acre, and 
this not always paid. Indeed, the field where an impor¬ 
tant part of the garden now is had the reputation of grow- 
ing nothing, but to a gardening eye it presented such 
capabilities that I determined, if I got possession of it, to 
make such a garden there, as had not been seen before.” 
Canon Ellacombe, whose garden at Britton, near Bristol, 
has been the headquarters of hardy plants for more than 
sixty years, wrote in 1883 of Mr. Wilson’s garden as fol¬ 
lows : 
“ It is quite marvelous to see the vigor with which 
many plants are growing which have been a puzzle to 
gardeners for many years; and this vigor is not confined 
to one or two classes of plants, for Mr. Wilson is ready 
to welcome strange plants from all parts of the woild, 
and though I do not say everything will succeed there, 
yet whatever does grow there seems to grow luxuriantly. 
Many things combine to produce this happy result. 
There is a great variety of soil and situation, so that a 
fitting place can be found for any plant, whether it re¬ 
quires sun or shade, dry soil or moisture, good friable 
loam or peat, or even a marsh. When to this is added 
plenty of water, and over all the practical knowledge and 
the careful tending of Mr. Wilson and his son, the secrec 
is explained.” 
The garden has made good progress since Canon Ella- 
combe’s visit, adds Mr. Wilson, and, thanks to the kind¬ 
ness of amateur friends and the authorities of botanic 
gardens, both at home and abroad, it is being filled up 
with interesting plants. 
