October  24,  1901. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
373 
Plants  Worthy  of  Improvement.1 
It  seems  peculiarly  appropriate  that  we  should  consider  the 
best,  most  useful  and  beautiful  of  our  wild  or  native  plants  on 
the  day  of  days  that  is  sanctified  by  the  very  name  St.  George  of 
England.  The  fact,  however  well  known,  cannot  be  too  much 
•emphasised,  that  some  at  least  of  our  very  best  fruits,  vegetables, 
and  flowers  are  garden  or  cultivated  developments  of  wild  plants 
found  in  our  woods  and  meadows,  or  along  the  seashore.  It  has 
been  said  that  “  charity  begins  at  home,”  but  the  English  people 
have  .never  been  quite  satisfied  with  that  proverb,  and  whilst 
often  utilising  to  some  extent  the  best  of  home  productions,  they 
have  ever  had  a  strong  weakness  for  acquiring  the  best  produc¬ 
tions  of  other  countries  as  well.  Old  Thomas  Fuller  told  us  that 
in  1600  we  imported  Cherries,  Apples,  and  other  fruits  from  the 
Continent,  and  “  hardly  had  a  mess  of  rath-ripe  Peas  except  from 
Holland,  which,”  he  drily  adds,  “  were  dainties  for  ladies- — 
they  came  so  far  and  cost  so  dear.” 
Even  as  late  as  1776,  when  Adam  Smith  wrote  his  “Wealth 
of  Nations,”  he  took  some  trouble  to  point  out  what  then  was 
true,  viz.,  that  gardening  was  practised  as  an  amusement  by  so 
many  well-to-do  people  that  market  gardeners  could  make  but 
small  profits,  since  the  rich  “  supplied  themselves  with  all  the 
most  precious  products  of  the  garden.”  Nowadays  we  have 
changed  all  arguments  under  these  heads,  and  many — even  if 
not  most — of  our  farm  and  garden  products  are  brought  to  us 
“  from  afar,”  as  Fuller  has  it,  and  they  cost  us  actually  less  in 
our  markets  than  the  products  grown  at  home.  Adam  Smith’s 
argument  has  lost  its  force,  since  the  increase  of  population  and 
of  industrial  and  commercial  prosperity  has  created  demands 
never  even  dreamed  of  a  century  or  even  half  a  century  ago. 
Thanks  to  cold  storage,  quick  transit,  and  cheap  freights, 
fruit  and  vegetables,  and  even  flowers,  are  welcomed  and  profit¬ 
ably  brought  to  our  shores  from  abroad,  often  at  times  when  our 
own  supplies  are  consumed  or  out  of  season,  and  still  the  finest 
produce  of  our  own  gardens  also  realises  good  prices  when  at  its 
best.  We  have  free  trade  in  everything  almost  except  in  land, 
and  our  land  laws  and  customs  need  revising  quite  as  much  in 
England  as  in  Ireland  and  elsewhere.  Cheap  and  simple  means 
of  purchase  or  security  of  tenure  are  especially  essential.  With 
land  in  the  hands  of  people  who  are  able  to  make  the  best  of  it, 
we  should  have  more  good  and  pure  food,  and  more  healthy  men 
and  women  to  the  acre ;  there  might  be  less  game,  but  Six- 
William  Crookes’  scarcity  of  Wheat  alarm  need  not  frighten  us, 
nor  threatened  invasion.  We  must  educate  the  children  who  are 
boi'n  in  and  like  the  country  to  stay  there,  and  do  our  best  to  win 
back  some  at  least  of  the  habits  of  old  English  thrift  and  house¬ 
wifery. 
Wild  Flowers. 
“  Woods  and  groves  are  of  thy  dressing, 
Hill  and  dale  doth  boast  thy  blessing. — Milton. 
“  Take  all  care  of  the  beautiful,”  said  the  old  Greeks,  “  because 
the  good  and  the  useful  will  care  for  themselves,”  so  we 
cannot  say  or  do  too  much  in  praise  of,  or  in  the  care  and  pro¬ 
tection  of,  our  most  beautiful  wild  flowers.  We  scour  the 
forests,  jungles  and  mountains,  the  pampas  and  the  prairies  of 
the  whole. world  for  garden  or  hothouse  plants  and  flowers,  or 
for  vegetable  products  used  in  the  arts  or  precious  for  “  the  heal¬ 
ing  of  the  nations,”  but  we  in  a  great  measure  neglect  and  under¬ 
value  the  wild  flowers  and  the  field  and  forest  products  of  our 
own  land.  All  the  savans,  the  great  travellers  male  and  female, 
Alfred  Russel  Wallace,  or  Miss  Marianne  North,  tell  us  that  no 
flowers  on  earth  can  rival  the  fresh  spring  flush,  the  summer 
lushness  and  sweetness,  or  the  rich  and  ever-varying  autumn 
colouration  of  our  native  vegetation.  Linnseus  is  said  to  have 
dropped  on  his  knees  in  reverence  at  the  golden  Gorse  or  Fui’ze 
as  it  first  flashed  on  his  eyes  in  England,  and  I  shall  never  forget 
the  ecstatic  delight  of  a  Swiss  botanist  as  he  first  saw  a  wood  of 
English  blue  Hyacinths  in  Sussex,  with  wild  rabbits  hopping 
about  amongst  them!  Ruskin  tells  us  he  never  really  felt  the 
full  force  of  what  the  words  “  purple  and  gold  ”  meant  to  mortal 
eyes  until  he  saw  a  field  of  purple-flowered  Clover,  with  a  golden 
river  of  Marsh  Buttercups  running  through  its  midst. 
The  tropics  are  monotonous  in  their  beauty,  and  for  flowers 
that  really  colour  and  perfume  the  landscape  for  miles  and  miles 
we  must  look  at  home.  Go  where  we  may,  there  is  nothing  finer 
than  Gorse  and  Broom,  Honeysuckle  and  Hawthorn,  followed 
by  Brambles,  Crabs,  and  wild  Roses,  and  the  purple  Heather 
that  paints  whole  mountain  sides  with  pure  colour,  and  yields  us 
honey  and  perfume  at  the  same  time.  Our  woods  are  sheltered 
arboreta,  and  are  jewelled  with  Anemone,  Hyacinth,  Foxglove, 
Lily  of  the  Valley,  and  a  host  of  other  flowers,  from  the  time  the 
catkins  of  Goat-willow  and  Hazel  or  Birch  appear,  until  the  Brake 
Fern  turns  brown  umber  and  golden,  and  the  leafy  canopy  of 
Beech  and  Chestnut  and  Oak  take  on  the  livery  of  the  dying 
year.  We  all  know  the  flash  of  pure  gold  that  comes  from  Marsh 
Buttercups  in  the  green  water  meadows,  the  pink  Cuckoo-flower 
*  An  essay  published  in  the  Journal  of  the  Royal  Horticultural 
Society,  from  the  pen  of  F.  W.  Burbidge,  M.A.,  F.L.S. 
or  Lady-sixiocks  “  all  silver  white,”  Ox-eyed  Daisies,  Clover  and 
fairy-like  Grasses  and  Sedges  of  many  kinds.  Every  hedge  in 
England  is  a  summer  tangle  of  Traveller’s  Joy,  wild  Roses  and 
Honeysuckle,  every  river  bank  and  brook  side  or  marsh  is  eni'iched 
with  Lythrum  and  Willow-herbs,  or  with  golden  Flag  Iris,  and 
ostrich  feathery  plumes  of  Meadow-sweet.  What  aquatic 
gardens  there  are  along  the  river  reaches  or  on  the  Norfolk 
Broads,  the  Reed  jungles,  or  Willow  holts  fringed  with  Water 
Lilies  all  afloat,  with  Water  Buttercups,  white  and  lacy-looking 
as  a  bridal  veil.  Everywhere  in  wild  England  to-day  tlie  sweet 
Violet,  the  pale  Primrose,  the  sweet  Woodruff,  and  wood  Wind¬ 
flower  make  copse,  wood,  and  hedgei'ow  alike  radiant  and  fra¬ 
grant  with  vernal  beauty.  In  the  daisied  meads  the  cinque- 
spotted  Cowslip  hangs  its  soft  sweet  head,  and  the  Daffodils  or 
Lenten  Lilies  of  England  blow  their  golden  trumpets  as  if  to 
summon  the  swallow  and  nightingale  to  the  climate  Browning 
could  not  forget  even  when  he  was  in  sunny  Italy. 
Amongst  the  best  of  all  our  native  wild  flowers  that  have 
already  been  to  some  extent  cultivated  and  improved  rve  may 
name  the  wild  Roses,  such  as  the  Sweetbriar,  and  the  Scotch  and 
Ayrshire  Roses.  There  is  now  a  revival  of  Rose  growing  and  the 
reai'ing  of  seedlings  in  England,  and  the  late  Lord  Penzance’s  new 
race  of  cross-bi-ed  Sweet-briars  may  be  taken  as  an  object-lesson  of 
the  best.  We  have  had  no  such  distinct  improvement  in  native 
or  home-reared  Roses  since  the  Scotch  Briars  (R.  spinosissima) 
and  the  climbing  Ayrshire  Roses  (R.  arvensis)  were  reared  nearly 
a  century  ago.  We  should  like  to  see  the  results  of  hybridising 
R.avensis  or  R.rubiginosa  with  the  single-flowered  R.  sulphurea, 
a  wild  Persian  kind,  or  of  the  Burnett  Rose  (R.  spinosissima) 
crossed  with  the  dwarf  and  precocious  blooming  R.  multiflora.  But 
potentialities  are  legion  when  we  consider  the  Roses,  and  we 
may  hope  for  actualities  as  well.  Violets,  field  Poppy  (Shiidey), 
Foxglove,  Lily  of  the  Valley,  Aquilegia,  Pinks  and  Carnations, 
Crocus,  Snowdrop,  Narcissus  or  Daffodil.  Hawthorn,  the  Daisy, 
Viola  tricolor  or  Pansy,  Primrose,  and  the  Wallflower  and  Stock 
and  wild  Rocket  have  also  been  improved,  though  much  more  is 
possible  and  remains  to  be  done. 
We  have  in  our  meadows  and  Corn  or  Turnip  fields  two  wild 
Chrysanthemums  far  finer  than  the  wild  species  of  China,  Korea 
or  Japan,  from  which  the  garden  Chrysanthemums  have  been 
obtained.  C.  leucanthemum  (white  or  ox-eye)  and  C.  segetum 
(Corn  Marigold)  are  both  worth  selection  and  cultural  improve¬ 
ment.  No  window  plant,  if  we  except,  perhaps,  the  common 
Musk,  is  so  popular  as  is  our  native  Moneywort  or  “  Creeping 
Jenny,”  of  which  millions  must  be  gi-own  in  pots  and  window- 
boxes  in  and  around  London  alone.  The  evergreen  Killarney 
Saxifrage,  or  St.  Patrick’s  Cabbage  (S.  umbrosum),  is  naturalised 
abundantly  in  London  gardens  under  the  name  of  “  London 
Pride.”  Nothing  on  earth,  not  even  from  the  tropics,  can  be 
more  fresh  and  beautiful  than  many  of  our  native  or  wild  Ferns, 
both  evergreen  and  deciduous,  and  it  is  pleasant  to  know  that 
they  are  now  more  popular  than  ever  and  more  largely  grown, 
while  their  names  are  being  amended  and  the  whole  group  better 
classified. 
Wild  Fruits. 
Very  few  areas  as  small  as  are  the  British  Islands  are  so  rich 
in  wild  fruits,  flowering  shrubs,  and  timber  trees.  English  Oak 
made  England  a  nation  centuries  ago,  and  even  the  acorns  were 
formerly  almost  more  valuable  as  “  pannage  ”  for  swine  feeding 
than  the  land  on  which  they  grew.  Had  not  “  Bluff  King  Hal  ” 
fostered  and  patronised  the  importation  of  Continental  fruit 
trees  into  Kent,  our  British  and  Irish  gardeners  might  have  made 
even  more  than  they  did  of  our  own  Apples  or  Crabs,  Pears, 
Plums,  Bullaces  and  Sloes  two  sorts  of  Cherries,  sweet  and  bitter 
fruited ;  Raspberries,  Strawberries,  Goosebeiwies,  Currants,  Red 
White,  and  Black ;  Cranberries  and  other  ericaceous  fruits,  Hazel 
Nuts,  and  lastly,  but  perhaps  quite  as  important  as  any,  the 
Blackberry,  tons  of  which  are  gathered  every  season  by  cot- 
tagei-s’  and  labourers’  children  in  the  country  districts  and  sold 
at  a  profit  in  all  our  manufacturing  towns.  Blackberries,  Mush¬ 
rooms,  and  in  some  disti’icts  wild  Bullaces  and  Sloes,  and  Water¬ 
cress  form  the  wild  harvest  or  “  jungle  produce  ”  for  bright  eyes 
and  lissom  fingers  nearly  all  over  the  counti-y,  and  but  little,  if 
any,  harm  is  done  in  the  gathering.  Minor  products  are  Elder¬ 
berries,  Medlai's,  Crabs,  and  wild  Pears,  springtops  or  autumnal 
trails  of  wild  Hops,  coral-berried  wreaths  of  Tamus  or  Black 
Briony,  our  only  Bi'itish  Yam.  The  silvery  fruits  of  Clematis, 
or  “  Old  Man’s  Beard,”  are  also  largely  gathered  and  used  for 
decoi’ative  purposes ;  so  also  are  the  red-fruited  Water  Elder 
(Viburnum  Opulus),  Mountain  Ash,  and  Berberis  berries  for 
jellies,  candying,  or  pickling,  as  garniture  for  venison  and  other 
dishes.  The  jelly  made  from  the  Rowan  tree  or  Mountain  Ash 
is  indeed  the  thing  for  a  haunch  of  venison,  especially  in  the 
North,  where  both  deer  and  Rowan  ti'ee  thrive  so  well. 
The  little  jet  black  Crowberries,  formerly  esteemed  of  gour¬ 
mands,  and  now  beloved  by  the  gi'ouse  on  many  a  mountain  side, 
are  not  much  utilised  to-day,  but  the  wild  Cranberry  and  the 
Irish  “  Fraughans  ”  (Vaccinium  Myrtillus)  are  gathered  in  quan¬ 
tities  wherever  they  are  plentiful,  and  used  in  tarts  or  puddings. 
Even  hips  and  haws  have,  been  used  in  rustic  cookeiy,  and  old 
Gerarde,  in  his  celebrated  Herbal  (p.  1,089),  mentions  preserved 
