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biodiversity-heritage-library

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Preface The papers published in this little volume were written to solace the languor of the last months of life, when a malady, which had crept by slow approaches upon him, broke down his strength, and arrested a professional career which had begun but recently. 'They betoken a mind gifted with quick, clear, and delicate perception, independency of judgment, and unsparing truthfulness. These were my friend^s characteristic gifts. They are dimly mirrored in these pages, but more clearly in the memory of those who knew him well. To them this little volume will be welcome, because of him : to others, perchance, it may be welcome for the worth it has, because it tells of the beauty there is in God's fairest frailest handiwork in flowers, and bears some trace of the rarer amaranthine beauty of a soul which wore " the white flower of a blameless life.'" J. B. PATON.

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1 ^ Flowers and Gardens way in which all things, however appa- rently incompatible, seem present and blended together when the imaginative faculty is at work. The common Star of Bethlehem {Ornithogalurn umbellaturn) is a good illustration of the working of this principle. When I look at the beautiful silver white of the inner surface of the petals, my mind is always dwelling upon and rejoicing in the fact that their outer side is green, though of that green outside I cannot see a hair's-breadth. Again, we find the same principle at work in the feeling which compelled the old sculptors to finish the hidden side of the statue. They said, " For the gods are every- where."^ They meant that when they looked upon their labours the imagination would necessarily carry away their thoughts to that hidden side, and that, if not finished like the rest, it would have pained them by its incompleteness. Of course, when Snowdrops are placed together in a bunch, we see in some the full beauty of the interior, whilst the defects of that position are covered by the presence of the sur- rounding flowers. 1 [Tmi' 6iwi €vcKa was the reason, and it was the rule with the workmen of the Middle Ages : the inner hidden side of arches, as of sedilia, was as carefully carved as the conspicuous outside. — H. N. E.] lo

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Ill The Purple Crocus^ THE Yellow Crocus is a perfect flower, leaving nothing that we could wish to add to or to alter, and at first sight there seems to be something less satisfactory when we turn from it to look at the Purple Crocus. In the first place, the latter plant is far less elegant in shape. We must follow this carefully and in detail. We shall find that the back of a Yellow Crocus petal is striped with a series of dark lines, of which the central and longest runs on to the end of the petal, while the shorter radiate from it on each side ' In these remarks I refer more particularly to the wild flower, Crocus vernus. In garden specimens it must be remembered that the shape will be probably more or less distorted, and some injury done to the general harmony of effect, though the tints may be greatly enriched. The less highly cultivated the plant, the better will it answer to my description. The flower should be wide open when examined. 27

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Flowers and Gardens and more polished look. It sets itself in far more prominent situations, as if to court our notice, is everywhere visible in the hedge, in the wood, and on the top of sunny open banks ; while the Scented kind has a sort of rarity just enough to make it precious, in unfavourable places it cannot bloom at all, so that we search over the leaves in vain, and it mostly prefers to sink back into the shade, or hide amongst the thick, close green of the rising hedge -plants. And there is apt to be a bluish tint in the April her- bage, by which this concealment is assisted. The Dog Violet is more noticeable from the causes we have already mentioned — the situation it chooses, where it will be little crowded or interfered with ; the larger size, greater number, and more conspicuous colour of the flowers, and the long stalks or side-shoots upon which it sets them. On the whole, we must con- sider the Dog Violet an unfortunate plant. It never gets the credit it deserves. Beautiful as it is with those lilac blossom clusters, we can hardly bring ourselves to love it deeply — it strikes us so much as a degeneration of the Scented species. The Scented Violet seems like genius in its modest youth, never thinking of dis- 40

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The Primrose amongst the mossy roots of some old beech, or springing up beneath the hazel- bushes, amongst Violets and White Ane- mones and the more abundant Dog's Mercury with its small green flowers, from a floor which, with all its green, looks so beautifully dry, and is guarded by an atmosphere of such echoing still- ness that we scarce feel out of doors : at least, these are the situations in which I have found the Primrose finest, but it is often very beautiful on shel- tered banks. The flower is of a most unusual colour, a pale delicate yellow slightly tinged with green. And the better flowers impress us by a peculiar paleness, not dependent upon any feeble- ness of hue, which we always find un- pleasing, but rather upon the exquisite softness of their tone. And we must not overlook the little round stigma, that green and translucent gem, which forms the pupil of the eye, and is surrounded by a deeper circle of orange, which helps it to shine forth more clearly. Many flowers have a somewhat pensive look, but in the pensiveness of the Primrose there is a shade of melancholy — a melan- choly, however, which awakens no thought of sadness, and does but give interest to 57

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Flowers and Gardens look like pearls set side by side. And the circularity of each is more distinctly seen by reason of the cup-like hollow- ness, which holds a little shadow at the bottom, with light playing round it in resemblance of the lustre of a pearl. And now, if we look once more at that crisped everted petal edge, we shall better understand its meaning. If clear and sharp it would not only be much less piquant, but would give the flowers, from the causes we have just been considering, too regular and artificial an aspect. It now detains the eye sensibly in passing round the margin, preventing any possible harshness of force, while it adds to the pearly delicacy of the colour by chasing it with shadows. This crisping, if I re- member right, is scarcely noticeable in the petals of the Scarlet Hawthorn, where the colour would not require it. And finally, this crisping guides the eye right to the insertion of the petals, so that their round- ness shall be most fully felt. Everything about the Hawthorn looks clear, trans- parent, and full of light. The petals of the Sloe are very different — their round- ness inclines somewhat more to the oval, and their opaquer white is well calculated for effect upon the darker leafless branches. 74

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The DafFodil different part of a plant after its own peculiar manner. Leaves, for instance, have but little capability for expressing sun-power. They may be regarded as the shady portion of the plant ; their very place is to be cool, a ground upon which to display the blossoms. They rarely assume warm tints, except in the autumnal withering of the trees— per- haps an acknowledgment that too much colour is incompatible with the condi- tion of their healthy existence. But green, the characteristic leaf- tint, re- quires little sun for its development. It is the tint of mosses, ferns, and the least organised plants in general, of the early spring, and of the cooler temperate zone. And the green parts of plants are generally the first to be seen, the flowers requiring more sun - power to awaken them. The flower is the light of a plant, just as leaves may be considered as its shade. This light may be a blue and cool one ; it may even be found, as in some Pansies, nearly approaching blackness ; but still it has a vividness, a stimulating power, far exceeding that of the green, which is the most restful tint we know, and it gene- rally expresses sun - force in responsive 91

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Flowers and Gardens lose sight of the individuals in the masses, though bewildered by the multitude of their claims. And there is the same variety in some of the Rhododendron- covered uplands of Switzerland, whose effect in its kind more nearly resembles what our gardeners desire. This constant revelling in a blaze of colour, without any proper relief, begets an indifference to the simple wild flowers, which seem tame and insipid to eyes that have been injured by excessive stimulus. Now none can have a healthy love for flowers unless he loves the wild ones. In a garden the plants are kept in well- behaved restraint, but we must watch their ways when they are wholly free, when each can choose the home it fancies best, and root and wrestle for existence there, disposing of its flowers and branches with the utmost possible carelessness of all other interests than its own, yet some- how producing an effect of almost perfect harmony and peace. And under no cir- cumstances need our wild flowers seem insipid to eyes that are rightly trained. I had a Foxglove on the table last summer whose bells were dropping, when there came in a little bunch of Geraniums and other greenhouse plants. My first 108

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Faults in Gardening Turnip, nor straggling looseness, nor any other of similar objectionable qualities : here and there, accordingly, such plants should be admitted. Note 6 I believe that nearly every plant has an especial loveliness of its own — a some- thing distinctive, that is, which is capable of endearing it to us. And though such degraded forms as Torilis nodosa may attract us chiefly as curiosities in all but exceptional instances, this loveliness founds itself upon some form of genuine beauty — beauty, I grant, which, as a whole, is often of an inferior order ; thus there is nothing to strike the eye in the common wild Mignonette, or in many of the Galiums, Willow-herbs, Groundsels, Rushes, Sedges ; and yet it frequently happens that these plants, not generally attractive, excel at particular times and in particular ways. Usually few people would admire the Yellow Charlock, yet what splendour it often casts over the yet green corn-fields when blended with the scarlet of the Poppies ! Anthriscus vulgaris, sylvestris, and many of the Umbelliferae are remarkable for the I2S

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Flowers and Gardens beauty. And observe what deep mean- ing they throw into the aspect of the Rose, giving it that expression of peace- ful dreamy rest, something of which, though varied in a hundred ways, is common in blossoms where the stamens are numerous, as, for instance, we may often discern it in the Rock Rose and Ranunculaceous orders. Now I have here made a contrast the most unfavour- able that could be thought of for my pur- pose. I have taken one of the gardener's noblest flowers, which has a dignity of form united with a significance of ex- pression, such as cannot be met with in any other double flower, and yet I think it must be felt that in the garden plant a very great deal has been lost, and furthermore that this loss is of im- mense importance.^ ' The finest Dog-Roses — I mean those which are the deepest pink — in many respects far surpass in colour the double Garden Roses. In the first place, their blush is almost unrivalled in the maiden softness of its glow. Then observe through what a wide range of harmonies we are led — outermost you see this sweet glowing pink, then a circle which is almost white, then the rich orange of the stamens, and finally a green disc in the centre, all these hues melting into and supporting each other with a softness and beauty indescribable. Can we meet with anything like this in the Garden Roses ? But the force of the effect does not depend upon colour alone. If you look at the Dog-Rose with half-closed eyes, and fancy 142

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On Gardeners' Flowers within them shine brighter and brighter as we gaze, and will not every painter allow the superiority of such beauty ? Even so it is with many a simple field- flower. We scarcely know what its beauty comes from, what renders it so dear, so full of deeper meaning, and yet sooner than lose it we would part with some of the choicest flowers of the garden, and many a wild one which far surpasses it in every outward advantage. We may note another point of compari- son. One of Rubens' highest excellences is colour, a very showy colour, — in fact, always toned up to a certain standard of floridity. But is Rubens, with all his gor- geousness and prodigality, ever ranked with the very greatest colourists? Now, our gardeners very closely resemble him here. In conclusion, then, I think that the gardener does wrong in too frequently driving out the single flower by the double, especially when, as in double Anemones and Hollyhocks, the gain is very paltry in comparison with the loss. He is wrong, moreover, when he creates what can only be felt as deeply degraded flowers, like the doubleTulips, Narcissuses, and Violets, these last being only valued for their superior IS9

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Flowers and Gardens sweet sugary or treacly odour, but, on the contrary, we find a smell even more dis- gusting than the Daffodil's. The Starch Grape Hyacinth, too {Muscari racemosum), remarkable for the fruity hue of its beaded blossoms, whose flowers rub together with a crisp glassy feel, like that of a bunch of Bluebell stalks, when we press the spike betwixt the fingers, is in this respect the same. Why should it be so ? On the other hand, there are thousands upon thousands of flowers in which the least shortcoming of perfect beauty cannot be detected by the most critical eye. The thorns of the Rose or Thistle are of course no imperfections at all, but right and very beautiful in their place. Note 4 When any flower has attracted unusual attention, as has been the case for the last two or three hundred years with the Tulip, the cultivator is somewhat at a loss for special means of excitement. He then becomes a complete sensationalist. Sometimes he will try to gain notice by gigantic size, the fine vase-like curvatures of the Tulip being replaced perhaps by a monstrous broadly open cup shape, as 172

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Flowers and Gardens Scarlet Geranium, and then ask yourself what that taste can be where this is not only tolerated, but admired. We may perhaps obtain a really beautiful leaf, like that Geranium leaf with variously coloured borders in which a coppery tint prevails ; but all this is essentially an imitation of withering, and wherever such plants come in largely, their colour must produce the effects of withering, making beds look as if they were blighted. But this is only one example of the thousand discords which are coming into favour now. The gardener here has entered a radically erroneous path, and there will be little but baseness in the results. How often do we see the colours of a bed completely frittered away amidst contrasts of leaves which are spotted and streaked into every sort of deformity ! That which is excep- tional in Nature is made the rule, the rule narrowed down into the exception. How can breadth of effect, or anything but the utmost frivolity, be possibly gained by means of such barbarous plants as these ? And some of the large tropical Arums (Aracec^) of the hothouse, I know not whether naturally or as the result of art, are as harsh as anything I have named, green grounds peppered thickly 176

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spring and Summer Vegetation the Umbelliferae (Hemlockworts), and other of the later bloomers. We have a greater number of those low, compactly- built plants, such as the Dandelion, Colts- foot, Violet, and Daffodil, whose flowers come straight from the root, and seem as if they had been placed there just ready for unfolding. And in plants of a different description, as the Water - Blob (Caltha palustris), which gilds the early marsh with such sudden splendour, or the Ground Ivy and Chickweed, there is a marked tendency to assume a like general aspect. Now what is the object of this charac- teristic difference of type? In the first place, evidently, that in the early flowerers the bloom should be evolved as rapidly and with as little preliminary effort as pos- sible. The earlier the plant has to blossom, the less work it must have to do before the blossom is put forth. Besides, longer stalks or leafy shoots would expose a larger surface unnecessarily to the cold. And this might prove injurious to even the hardiest plants, as we often see the foliage of the Elder and of other trees early in their leaf suffering most ' severely in the biting winds of March. In the second place, by this arrangement all undue inter- ference is prevented, so that everything in 189

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BOOKS FOR COUNTRY HOUSES The Natural History of Selborne. By Gilbert White. Edited, with Introduction, by Grant Allen. With upwards of 200 Illustra- tions by Edmund H. New. Fcap. 4to. Price 2 IS. net. •' The most delightful form that can be imagined. The attraction lies chiefly in finding the masterpiece so admirably illustrated by Mr Edmund H. New, In black and white line work of this class he has no equal." {Country Life.') "We have never seen this book in a more agreeable or appropriate form." {_St James s Gazette.') " Mr Edmund New's drawings are not merely artistic, but full of the poetry of association." {Speaker.) The Compleat Angler. By Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton. Edited, with an Introduc- tion, by Richard Le Gallienne. With Photo- gravure Portraits of Wahon and Cotton, and over 250 Illustrations and Cover designed by Edmund H. New. Fcap. 4to. Price 153. net. "A delightful edition, charmingly illustrated." {Punch.) "Of Mr Edmund H. New's illustrations we cannot speak too highly. We have never seen better." {Spectator.) " One of the best editions ; one, we cannot help thinking, that Walton himself would have preferred." {Daily Chronicle.) All About Dogs. A Book for Doggy People. By Charles Henry Lane. With 85 Full-page Illustrations (including nearly 70 champions) by R. H. Moore. Gilt top. Demy 8vo. Price 7s. 6d. net. "One of the most interesting contributions to the literature of the day." {Daily Chronicle.) "Mr Lane's book is worthy of a place on the shelves of any sporting library." {Outlook.) " A most interesting, indeed, an entirely fascinating book." {Stjatnes*s Gazette,) ORDER FROM YOUR BOOKSELLER

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FLOWERS AND GARDENS

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Flowers and Gardens surface, and melting into that deeper flame, a faint rosy tint, soft and delicate as that which the sunset casts when it fades upon the summits of the Alps. Then gather a flower, and look into it when expanded in more steady sunlight. You will see that what at first seem the white reflections are in every part of this exquisite rose-colour, or violet, which looks beautiful under the microscope in a strip of the petal skin. It was this tint which, playing over the outside of the flower, and perhaps blending with a glimpse of orange from within, caused the appearance we have noticed. And now let us study the flower a little more closely. Take one fully expanded, and hold it so that the light may enter the cup ; you see there are six petals,^ three outer and three inner. Though at first sight apparently alike in colour, close attention will show that the inner segments are of deeper hue and more distinctly orange than the outer. This does not matter much to us just now, except as tending to give variety and gradation. But we must carefully observe the colour itself. Like most things that are very beautiful, it varies ^ [Not true petals, but a perianth of six divisions. — H. N. E.] 20

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The Yellow Crocus greatly in different aspects : the petals to a careless eye, and especially in a dull light, may seem but a surface of glossy orange. Yet look carefully, and they are lighted with rosy reflections, pencilled with delicate streaks and nerves of shade, and, above all, bestrewed with little gleaming points, a host of microscopic stars which cast a fiery sheen like that of the forked feathers of the Bar-tailed Humming-bird, as if the surface were engrained with dust of amber or of gold. And with all this there is united what seems almost a trans- parency, like that of topaz or some precious gem, giving us an idea of that fine gold " like transparent glass," which we never understand till we see it in the clouds at sunset. But there is perhaps even yet a deeper loveliness in the flower. What is that in the lower portion of the chalice which makes it seem not so much as if inlaid with colour like the rest, but rather as if dim golden flame lay burning there, a liquid atmosphere of light. The wall, when we look closely, is paler and more transparent in seeming, or rather its sub- stantial colour has given place to a pale yellow surface like shaded pearl, mirror- like and lustrous, changing whenever we 21

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The Purple Crocus Purple Crocus. Try in the same way to lose yourself in one of the golden cups, and you will see that the mind can hardly endure to linger within the walls of that burning palace : — no rest or coolness is met with to refresh us there. But the Purple Crocus, partly from the full materials for colour-con- trast afforded by its interior, partly from the exceeding delicacy of tint, the lilac stripes and markings, the transparent veins, and the pale watery lake which lies at the bottom of the cup, seems to bear us away to some enchanted spot, a fairyland of colour, where no shadow ever falls — a land of dim eternal twilight and never-fading flowers. Note, too, the difference betwixt the Crocuses with regard to the stigma. In the Purple Crocus, where it is needed to complete the harmony of the flower, it rises long and flame-tipped out of the tall bundle of yellow stamens. In the Yellow Cro- cus, on the contrary, it is not needed for any special purpose, so that the stamens are left very short, and the stigma is low sunk between them. Notice also the curve of the outside of the Purple Crocus cup in a well- selected flower, and observe how quiet 35

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The Cowslip may still rejoice for what slight symbol of it is preserved imperishably in the Cowslip. Cowslips ! how the children love them, and go out into the fields on the sunny April mornings to collect them in their little baskets, and then come home and pick the pips to make sweet unintoxicat- ing wine, preserving at the same time untouched a bunch of the goodliest flowers as a harvest-sheaf of beauty ! And then the white soft husks are gathered into balls, and tossed from hand to hand till they drop to pieces, to be trodden upon and forgotten. And so at last, when each sense has had its fill of the flower, and they are thoroughly tired of their play, the children rest from their celebration of the Cowslip. Blessed are such flowers that appeal to every sense. There is nothing here possible of vulgar gluttony, but just a graceful recognition of the lower nature, which steps in for once as the imagination's guest. May not this be part of the reason why the Cowslip is so dearly loved ? Cowslip ! The name is of ancient Saxon origin, and very appro- priate if we consider it well. I have already said that the plant reminds us of flocks of cattle feeding — at first sight I 47

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Flowers and Gardens stalk on which the flowers are mounted is not round, as we saw it in the Snow- drop, for roundness would be unimpressive with such length. Broadly two-edged, we might almost say triangular, it contracts below the spathe into a slender wrist-like joint. But still it needs emphasis to make it sufficiently effective. And con- sequently the stem as it ascends is twisted, to prevent the flat side from falling too dead upon the eye. So the edges, ridged with their slight shallow teeth, cut upon us most keenly and decidedly, and the flat- ness rises up to terminate in the blunt flat-sided spathe, which swells out again above the joint, almost as might a human limb. Find a Snowflake stem which has not this twist and note the difference. Lastly, this twisting of the stem gives it the tapering look that makes its great length seem so well proportioned. View the stem in certain aspects, more especi- ally, I think, from behind, and this will be seen most beautifully. Then take the stem and go round it, and you will find that the tapering is less than it had seemed, because the effect was partly produced by the twist, as we have already said. 82

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XI The White Lily BEN J ON SON calls the White Lily "the plant and flower of light." Why? Because of its whiteness, says Leigh Hunt, in his " Imagina- tion and Fancy"; also because "there is a golden dawn issuing out of the White Lily in the rich yellow of the stamens." Yes, but is not Johnson also thinking of that silvery glistening of the petals, which makes them seem almost to shine with a light of their own? No darkening shade, no trace of richer tinting — those large queenly flowers seem wholly compact of a lustrous, dazzling whiteness, which gains warmth from the stamens with their rich orange glow. And all the rest of the plant is in perfect harmony with the flowers. The foliage, remarkably little stained or insect bitten, has even in June the glossy, vivid green which we deem peculiar to the spring, and often through all the time of 83

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Faults in Gardening THE pleasure we receive from flowers may be divided into sen- suous and non-sensuous. There is a certain enjoyment felt in rich- ness and variety of colour, in shape and smell, in juiciness, wiriness, softness, hard- ness, sharpness — looking at these qualities for their own sake merely. The scent of the Rose is delicious, even on a hand- kerchief, and altogether independently of its connection with the flower ; and the blue of the Larkspur would charm us on the painter's palette. But so far we please nothing but the sense, we stop at the out- side ; the plant is no more than a bundle of qualities. For true appreciation we must advance beyond this, and think of the plant as a living being — a friend whom we may love, and whose character must be intimately known. We shall wish to learn all we can of it, the time of 97 G

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Flowers and Gardens the bracken and the gorse, and all its other friends. And the Bluebell fails in our gardens, not solely because it is thrown back on its own unassisted merits, but partly because it is dragged from its destined sphere of display. Plant it by the side of Scilla campanulata — the common garden bell which so much resembles it, though it has dark red stamens, and larger, wider-open flowers — and I think that most people will prefer the Scilla ; partly, no doubt, because the Bluebell is an English flower, but partly, too, because the Scilla, though in itself less beautiful, has a beauty more adapted to the garden, and which loses far less than the Bluebells by being isolated. I feel confident that our verdict would be reversed, if we could compare the plants as they grow wild. The Bluebell and Foxglove are in themselves not unfit for gardens, or as illustrations of my argument they would be worthless. They become objectionable there, mainly because they are common native plants, with strong local associations, and grow, at full advantage, wild. My conclusion, then, is, let the Garden be to the Wild idem in altera ; that is to say, let it be mainly stocked with plants of 132

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Faults in Gardening close affinity to our own, so as to be adapted to our climate and to be pretty- thoroughly intelligible to us, but yet let them, as far as possible, be of different, dissimilar, and more splendid species. Such species are more attractive in them- selves, and lose least by being stripped of their natural surroundings. It may be necessary to remind the reader that Globe Flowers, Jacob's Ladder, Columbine, and many other of our most valuable garden plants are native species ; but they are very locally distributed in Britain. If commoner, though we should still employ them, their value would be injuriously diminished. Still not unfrequently a com- mon plant, like the Primrose, will be found to do good service. Note 9 Solon declared that to be the best of governments in which an injury done to the meanest subject is an insult to the whole community. Now this is pretty much the law of a garden. Nothing is more objectionable than the manner in which the common plants are often treated to make way for the grandees. Bulbs 133

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On Gardeners' Flowers gives a rich sensuous pleasure which steeps the soul as in a bath ; the other a pleasure of a much higher kind, and embracing far wider compass. Colour, it has been said, is life — that which gives vitality to form. It exists not only for itself, but to carry out an object. And the colour of the single Peony most beau- tifully does this. The actual range, too, of colour, as generally happens, is much wider than in the double flower, for the orange and green of the stamens and pistils are superadded to the crimson — not perhaps those oranges and greens best calculated to show off separately, but those best adapted to the particular effect here required, to light up the parts by striking contrast, and to give the look of a living thing. In the double Peony, on the contrary, the less brilliant colours are refused. There must be nothing in- ferior to crimson. And we can have any quantity — the more the better ; for there is here no nice balance to be preserved, no form to be set off, but that of a large round ball, massive and handsome enough, but by no means highly individualised. And what is the consequence ? The fully-opened flower of the single Peony is like the countenance of a living crea- 147

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Flowers and Gardens and as certain to be injured by the least untoward circumstance. It is often unable to stand in its own unassisted strength, and needs all kinds of artificial protection and support. And this is because the healthy balance is destroyed, because one part is cultivated out of pro- portion to, and therefore to the disad- vantage of, the rest. As compared with wild plants, it is like some, sleek, fattened- up domestic animal beside the wild or well - worked creature with its sinewy limbs, and scarce a particle of super- abundant flesh. All that you see in the latter is needed for activity or strength. Now wild plants require no artificial support, their fabric is justly proportioned, and they can therefore stand without finding their own weight burdensome. When we, therefore, look at the blossom- laden Fuchsia in a flower-show, which requires a prop for every limb, however we may admire the beauty of the flowers, let us never forget how artificial such treatment is, how altogether incompatible with a well-balanced perfection of the plant. What should we think of such a system of training applied to human beings, which gave large intellect and a noble countenance at the expense of 182

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On Gardeners' Flowers a debilitated frame? You may say that the cases are not precisely parallel, be- cause in man the general health would here be deranged, while in plants it is not necessarily so. But supposing that the general health could be equally un- affected in man, would that make any difference ? Would these mental ad- vantages be well bought for a nation at that large expense of physical ? Yet I do not condemn this mode of flower training when it effects any worthy im- provements, provided always that these highly cultivated forms are not allowed to drive out the others. We sometimes find an author speaking of branches breaking down under their load of fruit as if he considered this a beauty. It is just as much beautiful or desirable as to see the body destroyed by an over-activity of the brain. 183

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II The Yellow Crocus ^ WHILST the Snowdrop enters with so quiet a footstep that it might almost pass unob- served amidst the remnants of the melting snow, the Crocus bursts upon us in a blaze of colour like the sun- rise of the flowers. 'PoSoSaKTvXoi 'Hmy, the " rosy- fingered dawn " of spring, are the words which rise to our lips instinctively as we look upon it. Most gladsome of the early flowers ! None gives more glow- ing welcome to the season, or strikes on our first glance with a ray of keener plea- sure when, with some bright morning's warmth, the solitary golden fingers have kindled into knots of thick-clustered yellow bloom on the borders of the cottage garden. At a distance the eye is caught ' Examine good out-of-door specimens, and avoid as much as possible the later blossoms of the season, which are often very faulty. i8

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The Yellow Crocus by that glowing patch, its warm heart open to the sun, and dear to the honey- gathering bees which hum around the chalices. This is one of the many plants which are spoilt by too much meddling. If the gardener too frequently separates the off- sets, the individual blooms may possibly be finer, but the lover of flowers will miss the most striking charms of the humbler and more neglected plant. The reason is this : the bloom, when first opening, is of a deeper orange than afterwards, and this depth of hue is seemingly increased when the blossoms are small from crowded growth. In these little clusters, there- fore, where the flowers are of various sizes, the colour gains in variety and depth, as well as in extent of surface, and vividness of colour is the most im- portant point in the expression of the Yellow Crocus. I have called the Crocus poSoSaKTvXoi 'Ho)f, and the expression has an additional meaning if we look upon the flower some morning of gleaming doubtful sunshine, when it is uncertain whether to expand or no. Perhaps the folded petal reveals a glimpse of the deeper orange within, and at times you see playing over the outer 19

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Flowers and Gardens and solemnly beautiful it is, in perfect harmony with the general expression. Most solemn curves are but little varied, as that of a dome, for instance, or of the sky, or of the sea-horizon. 36

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Flowers and Gardens think of sheep and lambs more parti- cularly ; and these ideas are carried out in the whiteness and milky cleanliness of the sleek downy skin, in the fat legs of unequal size, with their lame irregular drooping, as it might be the legs of the little ones crowding round their mothers, and the flowers breathing fragrance sweeter than the sweetest breath of kine. I know how little sensible these remarks will appear to the unimaginative ; but I am dealing with facts as they are, and not as we may think they ought to be. Our impressions of flowers are largely built up of these broken multitudinous hintings, often exceedingly vague and indefinite, but by no means wholly arbitrary. It is from these dim suggestions that our ancestors have drawn our present names of flowers, sometimes with deep insight and poetic truth, sometimes with all sorts of flighty and fantastic colouring, lent by medicine, astrology, or alchemy. To take a few examples. In Bee Orchis, Turk's- Cap Lily, Corn Blue-bottle, the resem- blance is unmistakably clear, the last name of course pointing at the swollen look of the flower-cup. Archangel (White Dead Nettle), Lady's Fingers, Cuckoo Pint, and Cowslip are more indefinite ; you feel 48

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The Cowslip them to be true, but cannot perhaps say why. Moneywort ^ we begin to feel more arbitrary, as are Devil's Bit and Solomon's Seal ; whilst, finally, Lycopsis, or Wolf- like Bugloss, is wholly unmeaning and based on no resemblance whatsoever. Now, the superficial appearance of the Cowslip is strongly suggestive of sheep, but if you will try to coin a name from this suggestion you will feel that it is quite inferior. Lambs and their Mothers, Lambs' Legs, or Lambs in the Meadow, might seem truer to the eye, but they would impress us far less forcibly. And why is this ? It is because they leave out the fragrance, the deepest sugges- tion of all. There is something in that balmy sweetness which irresistibly con- nects itself with cows. And more, in looking at the Cowslip we are always most forcibly struck by its apparent wholesomeness and health. This whole- someness is quite unmistakable. It be- longs even to the smell, so widely different from the often oppressive perfume of 1 [Moneywort, from the shape of the leaf; Devil's Bit, from the old legend that the shortened root had been bitten by the Devil, and Solomon's Seal, from the seal- like appearance of a section of the root. The " wholly unmeaning " name of Lycopsis is now given up ; the plant is classed as an Anchusa. — H. N. E.] 49 D

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Flowers and Gardens our impression of the plant, giving a sense of extreme delicacy and need of shelter, as if it were some gentle crea- ture which shrinks from exposure to the weather. 66

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Faults in Gardening which my present paper is directed, all centre in this one thing — the constant subjection of the imaginative, or higher, to the sensuous, or lower, element of flower beauty. We will trace this, first, in the general arrangement of gardens and of flowers in relation to each other, and afterwards in the case of their in- dividual culture. To begin, then, we find flower-beds habitually considered too much as mere masses of colour, instead of as an assemblage of living beings. The only thought is to delight the eye by the ut- most possible splendour. When we walk in our public gardens everything seems tending to distract the attention from the separate plants and to make us look at them only with regard to their united effect. And this universal brilliancy, this striking effect of the masses, is the ac- knowledged chief aim of the cultivator. Speaking of the older gardens, Mr. C. Mcintosh says : " No doubt that ten out of every twelve sorts of annuals thus grown were useless trash, weedy in appearance, and producing none of those brilliant effects for which our modern flower gar- dens are so conspicuous ; and the same may be said of the perennial plants exist- ing in those days. . . . Gardeners of the 99

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Flowers and Gardens Lastly, we come to the arrangement of flowers after they have been cut. Of course, all arrangements are bad which destroy the general character and expression of a flower for the sake of some particular quality. Many people seem to think that they have nothing to do but to place flowers so that their colours will look nice. We often see little nosegays with Fuchsia bells pulled off and stuck in upright — that is to say, upside downwards. Now any one who really cares about Fuchsias cannot help being annoyed at this. His eye necess- arily rests upon the long, unmeaning stigma — unmeaning now, but so beautiful in its natural posture, where it carries off the flower-droop, and prevents it from being cut off too suddenly and abruptly by the straight wide margin of the cup. But the arranger heeds nothing of this. He has the colour he requires — for I suppose him to have an eye for colour — and that is sufficient. I have seen people do just the same with the splendid blossom of the Horse Chestnut. When that tree comes into flower, there is often a very sudden curve in the shoots of the lower branches, which makes it extremely difficult to fix the shoot in water, without either tilting the end of the stalk out of the water, or ii6

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Faults in Gardening bending the blossoms to one side. Now many will get rid of the difficulty by delib- erately turning the shoot upside downwards, so as to make the blossoms pendulous instead of upright, when, of course, all their beauty is destroyed. The pendulous blos- som so inverted looks weak and straggling, the erect one stiff and heavy. Many, too, cram flowers together in round dense bunches, so that we can see the shape of nothing. Sometimes this can hardly be avoided, as in the case of Cowslips or Violets. And assuredly few contrasts can be more lovely than Violets, white and purple, massed together with a bunch of Primroses, and all resting on the broad green Primrose leaves. But what we get here is chiefly the colour and the smell. Flowers generally are best arranged more loosely, and with more of the herbage attached, even if there must be fewer of them. Thus in spring I like to have two or three bright scarlet Anemones {hor- tensis), with two or three spikes of Grape Hyacinth {racemosum), two Jonquils, two pieces of white Ranunculus, two brown Fritillaries [pyrenaicd) and two white ones, and a single stem of the large pink Saxi- frage, and all these intermixed and put to- gether loosely in a small vase, so as to look 117

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Flowers and Gardens taken up before they are ready, and dwarfed for next season in consequence ; small trees or shrubs transplanted care- lessly, and thrust in wherever they will do no harm, because a little too good to throw away, and not quite good enough to deserve just treatment; and many other plants neglected, overshadowed, or in some way stinted of their due, as not being worth much trouble. At times, even worse than this, we see murderous digging and slashing amongst plants in their period of growth. This is not a healthy process for the mind. Whatever is unfairly treated is better altogether away, since we can view it with no hearty relish. And this injustice to the least is felt inevitably in a measure by all, for it affects the spirit of the place. Half the charm of the old-fashioned garden lies in that look of happy rest among the plants, each of which seems to say, "All plant life is sacred when admitted here. My own repose has never been disturbed, and I am confident it never will be." You feel this to be a sort of haven of plant life, preserved by some hidden charm from the intrusion of noxious weeds. The modern garden, on the contrary, is too apt to assume a look of stir and change ; here 134

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On Gardeners' Flowers he tempts us, any more than he necessarily must, to narrow down our tastes, or wil- fully leads us to prefer the lower to the higher, or carries out evil tendencies as to faulty colouring or shape, that we must hold him justly to blame. But with reference to losses from cultivation, is the gardener always neces- sarily one-sided ? May he not raise a plant, without material loss of any kind, to a higher order of beauty ? Theoreti- cally it appears by no means easy to say. Even if it were a mere question of size, can a plant be quite perfect that is designed for being two feet high, if it can be raised without any loss to three or four? How should we like our Snow- drops and Harebells to be of twice the present size ? On the contrary, if the plant is improved by enlargement of the blossom, with or without corresponding diminution of the foliage, would not this show that the blossom had originally been too small? It might be answered, of course, that some forms have dwindled or deteriorated, and may be restored by giving them the advantages they require. But this will not be the usual case. In general, where the wild plant seems really inferior, we shall probably find that the 167

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On Gardeners' Flowers flowers. But mark particularly how the Iris differs from a double blossom, how much more preciseness of aim there is in the parts, a few grandly managed elements most carefully individualised, and how comparatively, slight is the tendency to repetition. In the double flower, on the contrary, we are struck by the comparative feebleness of plan. There is constant repetition, the petals crowded together numberless, and with far less care for the individuals, which in many cases melt up into almost shapeless confusion, and can only be looked at in the mass, as in the double Tulip and Hollyhock. This marks, of course, a certain deterioration of char- acter. Whenever, on the contrary, the parts are more cared for, they begin to give a look of stiffness, because there are too many of a similar kind. The Carnation and Dahlia, for instance, have much the effect of patterns. Note 8 As the result of that wish for large size which every gardener approves, we find that highly cultivated flowers are apt to have a look of weakness. The plant impresses us as soft, loose, nerveless, i8i

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II On the Withering of Plants A FTER seeing any flower for a cer- /\ tain length of time, we almost I \ necessarily tire of its beauty. This is especially the case if it belongs to an uncomfortable season of the year. For instance, dearly as we love the Snowdrop, it soon begins to gather round it a train of recollections of cold and gloomy weather, and as we look upon it day after day, and its first charm loses force, these disagreeable as- sociations gain ascendency in a like pro- portion. Besides, each flower at the time of its first appearance is adapted to fill some characteristic place in the land- scape, but before it passes away the features of the landscape have changed, so as to harmonise more perfectly with the newly entering generation of blos- soms, which are bursting upon our sated eyes with all the advantages of novelty. 198

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spring and Summer Vegetation plants are really answering a purpose by staying with us so long. It would have been easy to have made them disappear with the approach of winter, but this would not have accorded with Nature's aims. They stand ugly till perhaps the middle or end of April, when faster decay and the rapid advance of the season clear them off. And if we study them aright they will really afford us pleasure. They give quite a peculiar aspect to the country, the new things being made to gradually replace the old. After the frost and snow have shattered the few last remnants of the summer, the fields are a dead, dull expanse, and very sweet it is to mark the cheerful green rising up and conquering the barrenness. And though perhaps it would be impossible to care much for last year's withered grass stalks, except as the frail ghosts of departed friends, we may certainly watch the bright green leaves springing up in the ditches amongst the old dry pipes of Hemlock [Antkriscus, &c.), and gain much pleasure from the contrast. 197

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PREFACE THE following papers have been written during a last illness, which has often made it impossible to examine the specimens I could have wished. In the Primrose, for example, I have only been able to make out satisfactorily the drooping aspect of the leaf: how this combines itself with the more rigid character in the different stages of the leaf I do not fully understand. For the same reason many of the illustrations, especially in the chapters on Gardening, have been selected as being the most ready to hand rather than as the best. In my remarks on Gardening I have no wish at all to disparage the modem systems. • My aim chiefly was to point out the faults of modern gardening, be- cause its merits are such as it is impossible to overlook. Lastly, in many instances my remarks bear more or less reference to the works of Ruskin, the greatest and best of

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Contents PART II GARDENS I. FAULTS IN GARDENING . . ■ -97 II. ON gardeners' flowers . . .138 PART III VEGETATION I. spring and summer VEGETATION . . 187 IL ON THE WITHERING OF PLANTS . .198

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Flowers and Gardens " But what is this scientific name when compared with the "Snowdrop" of our native tongue ? How insignificant is that nearer rendering of sensuous character and colour, deeply capable as these are of ex- pressing soul — -of conveying the spiritual meaning and essence, when placed beside that which sets forth not form and aspect merely, but the relation of these to what we know of the plant, to the history of its life and struggle, and all that most endears it to our affections ! Such a name as Galanthus only gives what we might easily discern if the flower were a perfect stranger, and even here it would be far inferior to Snowdrop. But this is a very small part of what we ought to see in the flower. It is not the clustering associa- tions merely — a word which we hate, on their own principles, from its connection with the school of Alison and Jeffrey — but the exquisite manner in which it symbolises the changes of the season which gives it birth. This will best be shown by closely studying the expres- sion. Look at the flower as it first ap- pears at the end of January, when winter is closed, or at least its main strength broken. The snow is thawing, the sky overcast, not a single cheering sunbeam ;

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The Purple Crocus extent parallel, or nearly so, and to some extent divergent. Now, viewing the petal in profile, but so that the dark midline may be distinctly seen, we shall find that this line marks and em- phasises the whole length of the double curve from top to bottom of the corolla. Below, the others join it, and, partly by the repetition of line and partly by their darkness, lend additional emphasis and power to the lower curve. But we have already said that these lines are to some extent divergent, radiating in a direction away from the base of the petal. Partly from this circumstance, and partly from the shape of the figure they form, they guide the eye like a dart to the central line where it runs down into the stalk. And thus we are furnished with a system of leading lines, enabling us, on looking at the flower, to see at a glance the curve of every petal and its relation to the others, and, besides, giving unity to the whole by guiding the eye to the meeting - point in the stalk. The effect of lines at once parallel and divergent is gained by this most beautiful arrangement. These lines act in just the same way if we look at the petal from the back. 29

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Flowers and Gardens it. It is by no means sent forth only to be despised — not even the ape is that, for we may admire its strength and easy dexterity of limb. The Dog Violet is well fitted for the place it occupies ; it is a lively, pleasant, neat-looking flower, and its blossoms are very lasting. But in the qualities which touch us most it certainly is deficient ; and on comparing it with the Scented Violet, as we cannot possibly help doing, since we first learnt to recog- nise it by its defects when gathered in mistake, the lesson intended seems ap- parent. Yet beautiful as the Scented Violet is, its colour will not compare with that of the common Pinguicula or Butter- wort, the Violet of the Marsh. In this plant, two or three large flowers, shaped not unlike the Violet, but on longer stalks, and of far richer purple, rise up from a circle of broad, flat leaves, of light yel- lowish-green, ever wet with unctuous secretion, and beautiful in their contrast with the flowers beyond almost anything I know. Yet one defect — they have no smell. Fragrance on the whole seems less common in marsh and water plants. We find it rather in the Thymes, Laven- ders, Roses, and Myrtles, and the tenants of a drier soil. Yet even in England 42

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VI The Primrose WHAT a change there is in turning from the Cowslip to the Primrose ! This last seems the very flower of delicacy and refinement ; not that it shrinks from our notice, for few plants are more easily seen, coming as it does when there is a dearth of flowers, when the first birds are singing, and the first bees humming, and the earliest green putting forth in the March and April woods. And it is one of those plants which dislikes to be looking cheerless, but keeps up a smouldering fire of blossom, from the very opening of the year, if the weather will permit. The source of its expression is a little dif- ficult to trace, arising from a subtle combination of certain finer elements which are more decided, or else awant- ing, in the Cowslip. 55

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The Primrose saying that it disappears when we pluck the flower. I do not mention this mistake in any fault-finding spirit, but to show how needful it is for accurate observers to examine many specimens ; individual Primroses are occasionally scentless, but it is merely the result of accident. This softness is very striking, too, in the calyx, with its long, light, tapering fingers, so different from the broad, almost triangular teeth of the loose husky calyx of the Cowslip, this being, in fact, one of the botanical distinctions betwixt the plants. Then look at the leaves, those broad, arching tongues, so deeply wrinkled and uneven ; their very margins, too, wavy, plaited, and irregularly indented ; the teeth, with their sharp, white vein-points, softened by an intervening fringe of down, and tearing out almost into raggedness as they near the footstalk, from which the leaf gradually opens, with something of the outline of a tongue of water, into the flatter, broadly-rounded tip. You know what I refer to here : the wavy irregular outline which spilt water so often takes when alternately flowing and creeping slowly, and, as it were, tentatively, along the ground. And the more the leaves arch over, the better will the effect of 59

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Flowers and Gardens Hawthorn. The Hawthorn first clothes itself in full array of green, and then puts its blossoms forth, loading its branches with the fragrant snow, till the long lines of distant hedge seem like billows tumb- ling over into foam. And when we break off a branch how lovely the blossoms are, each with its rounded petals — a little ring of pearls, and lovely most of all, the half- opened buds, which shine in the light like little balls of silver. And then that sweet and hay-resembling fragrance, what delightful thoughts does it recall of May days in the past ! But what a difference between the Hawthorn and the Sloe! In this last, the flowers are irregularly scat- tered instead of being bound up into these dense, well-compacted corymbs of the Hawthorn blossom. The smell is faint, bitter, and disagreeable ; and there is a comparative harshness in the stamens and centre of the blossom. The anthers soon burst, and then all beauty disappears, for the stamens look loose and disorderly. But the most important difference lies in the configuration of the petals. The Hawthorn blossoms have a compactly rounded make, and the petals of each flower are individually round and hollow, and are set in the ring as accurately as 72

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The Daffodil Consequently whatever seems immedi- ately to restore lost strength we call refreshing. Thus we speak of a giant refreshed with wine, or of a man who eats and is refreshed. Still the term is most generally associated with the idea of cold ; and as cold depresses vitality, whilst heat is necessary to maintain it, this may at first sight seem strange. But we only call a cool breeze more refreshing than a warm one because the former braces and exhilarates, whilst the latter is more apt to depress us. At all times warmth, and especially the warmth of a fire, seems to give increase of comfort rather than of power and disposition for bodily exertion. If we were frozen that heat might restore us to life, but not to an active life ; we should feel for a time that our strength and energy were gone. And practically we find it unsafe to approach a fire when we are very cold ; the restoration of warmth by such means is always painful, and it would be certain destruc- tion to a frozen limb. Now to apply this definition. The freshest-looking plants are those which have the most marked external signs of active and energetic life. Much mois- 89

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Flowers and Gardens trast with the winter, and by that cool, delicious freshness which no other season can bestow. There arises, then, even for the world -worn man, a sort of second childhood — the film is half fallen from his eyes ; but where will he see those flowers which, if any can, might win him back to Nature? Anemone, Dog's-Tooth Violet, Pasque Flower, Yellow Adonis, Hepatica, Gentianella, and the lesser Fritillaries — what beauty can be matched with theirs ? Yet how rarely do they seem to come before us now ! My chief accusation then is, that gar- deners are teaching us to think too little about the plants individually, and to look at them chiefly as an assemblage of beau- tiful colours. It is difficult in those blooming masses to separate one from another ; all produce so much the same sort of impression. The consequence is, people see the flowers on the beds with- out caring to know anything about them, or even to ask their names. It was different in the older gardens, because there was just variety there, the plants strongly contrasted with each other, and we were ever passing from the beautiful to the curious. Now we get little of quaintness or mystery, or of the strange, io6

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Faults in Gardening blossoms, I believe, are generally much finer in the greenhouse. Note 5 We exclude from our gardens as weeds, and with perfect justice, such plants as our ordinary Cruciferse and Umbelliferae, or the common Dead Nettles and Clovers. This does not necessarily mean that they are deficient in beauty, but that they have not any of those effective qualities — that power of instantly attracting the eye when planted separately, which is necessary in a garden flower. Chce- rophyllum temulum, for instance, like many another of the Hemlocks, is a most graceful plant when met with in a country lane, but if placed on the border, a great part of its beauty would vanish. It needs the dense green vegetation of the hedge bottom to show it off to advan- tage. But Mullein, Borage, Foxgloves, and the larger Spurges ought not to be considered weeds. Such plants have their proper place in the garden, and may be very pleasing there, though it is just upon this class that the modern taste weighs heaviest. Where are all those quaint, strange plants which used to make 123

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Flowers and Gardens and with a colour often scarce less ex- quisite, which sinks into the deep central dimple with a glowing blush, like a sunset into the clouds. Then turn to the Moss Rose, and see how deliciously the opening tints of the bud, like the face of an awakening beauty, look forth from their nest of thick green viscous moss. It would be difficult to adduce better instances of what cultivation can achieve. But let us contrast these with the Dog- Rose. In the first place, we find that in the garden plants the long arched shoots have disappeared, which stretch high over the hedge, or, descending, trail down their fragrant burden into the shady lanes below, within easy reach of every passer-by. Beautiful are they, close at hand ! Beautiful in the distance when the hedges are everywhere breaking forth into the creamy foam of elder blossom, picked out with these showery touches of pink ! Now such a free dis- play of the general form of the Rose is evidently impossible in a garden. The plant must be cut down to the shape of the compacter standard, or else be dis- posed upon trellis- work. In either case its freedom is restrained, and even the freedom of trellis-work is incompatible 140

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On Gardeners' Flowers rather say, that their most distinctive ex- cellence Hes in another direction. The more natural flowers exhibit gene- rally a self-imposed restraint, and reser- vation of power : they seem making no effort to be beautiful. The highly cul- tivated flower will often impress us too much with this idea that it is doing its utmost, and that it could not well be larger, nor fuller, nor its colours in the least more showy.^ Consequently, in the largest Auriculas, Wallflowers, Azaleas, Petunias, we feel a certain laxity, as if the form were almost breaking from its bounds. By keeping too much, then, to these garden flowers, you will be tempted to lose sight of the value of narrowness in shape, and of modest severity in colour- ing, and be continually wishing, as the gardener generally does, to see everything carried on from fuller to fuller, and so to the perfect consummation of fulness in the double blossom. We may say that the gardener's taste bears a certain analogy to that of Rubens. ' Just as in looking at the Farnese Hercules you say, " What a noble figure ! Could any one imagine a frame more muscular than this ? " But no such thought ever enters your head whilst you contemplate the superb proportions of the Theseus (Hercules?) of the Elgin marbles. 157

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Flowers and Gardens the points of the three outer and narrower sepals, thus clearly distinguishing them from the three inner broader and blunter petals, whose tips were directed inwards. The corolla was not large, and therefore required no stout stiff stem to support it ; the stem had, in fact, just that slight amount of curvature which would redeem it from the appearance of formality. The colour was a fresh honey yellow, beautiful in itself, and well adapted to the form. It is difficult to recognise species in these garden plants ; but I think that this is very likely to have been one of the com- mon May Tulips amongst which it grew : yet in the highest beauty, and in character what a difference ! ^ Such flowers may not be fitted for display in a bed, but scat- tered here and there in twos and threes amongst the other plants, they will im- press us as no other Tulips can. I believe that this kind of Tulip is common in our cottage gardens, and therefore I have noticed it. The cultivated form of Gesneriana is often exceedingly fine when well rounded ' [The Tulip so accurately described is T. retroflexa, certainly one of the most elegant of the family. The re- curved petals suggest a connection with the wild Tulip, T. sylvestris, but it is not ajlied to it, and its origin is unknown. — H. N. E.] 174

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Spring and Summer Vegetation no interference there, except such as con- stitutes an advantage. That rich carpet of Anemone, Violet, and Primrose might be choked by the thick undergrowth if it bloomed in the summer time, or be too much veiled by the foliage of the trees if that were developed earlier. But as it is, in early spring the slight shade of the naked boughs gives warmth and protec- tion, so that the flowers can come forth sooner, and possess a beauty which is wanting in less sheltered spots. Look, for instance, at those splendid Violets, large-flowered, long-stalked, which we find growing in the woods, or compare the wide-eyed woodland Anemones, in all their ethereal loveliness, with those which blossom in the open fields. Then, again, the full summer heat has a mischievous influence upon many of the woodland plants. We notice, for example, in a garden that the much-exposed Prim- roses are often damaged in the summer, and never have the same beautiful appear- ance as those which grow under proper cover. So it has been wisely arranged that the leafy canopy of the woods shall greatly increased, but they have become of far less abso- lute importance, are crowded by the other plants, and never can rival the beauty of the April meadow-flower. 191

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BOOKS ABOUT GARDENS In the Garden of Peace. By Helen Milman (Mrs Caldwell Crofton). With 24 Illustrations and Cover designed by Edmund H. New. Crown 8vo. Price 5s. net. Third Edition. " Sincerity is the note of tlie whole book." {Glebe.) Outside the Garden. By Helen Milman (Mrs Caldwell Crofton). With 24 Illustrations and Cover by Edmund H. Nevs^. Crown 8vo. Price 5s. net. " 'Outside the Garden' fully maintains Mrs Crofton's reputation as one of Nature's keenest observers." ' (DaiJy Chronicle.) My Roses and How I Grew Them. By Helen Milman (Mrs Caldwell Crofton). With a Cover designed by Edmund H. New. Crown 8vo. Price IS. 6d. net. Third Edition. " Pleasantly written. . . . The book is such that a novice might implicitly follow, while the more experienced may find useful hints." {Garden.) Flowers and Gardens. By Forbes Watson. With Photogravure Portrait of the Author. Edited, with a Biographical Note by Canon Ellacombe. Crown 8vo. Price 5s. net. a reprint of a volume much sought after by garden lovers, which has been out of print for many years. '* I am afraid Dr Forbes Watson's most charming book ' Flowers and Gardens' is too little known. No modern author, not even excepting Ruskin, has studied the form and the beauty of flowers so closely and lovingly as he has done." (Bright's " A Year in a Lancashire Garden.") A book " which was once warmly welcomed and which appealed im- mediately to all readers by its charmmg style and beautiful thoughts." (Ellacombe's *'In a Gloucestershire Garden.") The Birds of My Parish. By E. H. Pollard. with Collotype Illustrations. Crown 8vo. Price 5s. net. " Evelyn Pollard has a very delightful style of writing, and the story of the Birds of her Parish is charming.' {Shooting Tiines.) ORDER FROM YOUR BOOKSELLER

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Editor's Preface he did so with -power, because he was able to point out one special but very large blot in the system. He showed that it led to an utter ignorance of, and an almost wicked contempt for, the beauty of individual flowers. The flower in itself had become nothing, it was but one small spot in a large mass of colour, and had no value except in so far as it helped the mass. His words were : " Our flower beds are mere masses of colour, instead of an assemblage of living beings : the plant is never old, never young, it de- generates from a plant into a coloured orna- ment." "The trumpet gave no uncertain sound, and it did its work against the most de- termined opposition — especially from gardeners and nurserymen — and one thing that helped to the final victory was his often-repeated advice to study and love the wild flowers. With the advocates of bedding-out these could have no place, but Forbes Watson showed that the study of plant life and plant beauty could be carried on without the help of grand exotics or Museum Herbaria ; that the plant lover would find all he wanted in the fields and hedgerows of his own land; and that the more he studied them there, the more he

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Editor's Preface would love the plants in his garaen ; and so would become a better gardener. I said that Forbes Watson was a deeply religious man : his religion permeates the whole book, and indeed is the key to a great deal of what he says. It was the feeling that God had made everything very good that made him love His works, not only for their use- fulness, but for their beauty. There were a few instances in which he could not see the beauty, but he was quite sure that it was there. And it was this same religious feeling that made him see a great deal which others would not look for. It has been said that the book is too fanciful and sentimental, especially in attributing to flowers such characters as purity, passion, innocence, sensuousness, i£c., but it is the bare fact that Forbes Watson saw these things, and because he saw them, and thought it almost the moral duty of others to see the same, that he recorded his feelings ; the flowers had been real teachers of good things to him, and he felt it a religious duty to hand on the lessons to others. Something must be said about the literary style of the book. Had his life been spared and he had given himself to authorship, he

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IV The Violet MILTON in his " Lycidas" speaks of the "glowing violet." What does he mean ? Partly, no doubt, he would contrast the colder, bluer tints of the Dog Violet with the purple of the scented kind, a purple which catches the eye in a dim uncertain way, known to all Violet seekers, when the flower lies half-hidden amongst herbage, so that we doubt whether we have really discovered one or no. This is Shake- speare's "violets dim." But that is not all. We find that a perfectly scentless flower impresses us as cold. If the Rose or White Jessamine were scentless, it would seem cold like the Camellia or Blue Gentian of the Alps. As it is, we think them warm. This feeling, of course, may be modified by other circumstances, a smooth, glossy plant seeming colder than a hairy or woolly one ; but the feeling 37

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VII The Globe Flower "X"TTTHAT is this flower, yellow \ V / and pale, and yet so singu- yy larly bright, yielding nothing in our May gardens to Iris, Narcissus, or Tulip, and yet springing up wild here and there by streamlets in the rocky dells amongst the mountains of Wales and Cumberland ? Wherever we meet with it, it commands our in- stant homage. Amidst the blaze of gaudy flowers, for all its unpretending dress, none looks of a descent more manifestly noble. And when wild we always feel as though it had strayed from a selected circle. The jolly butter- cups and field flowers appear like country folk ; it stands among them all con- spicuous like a king. I once saw it in a dell where it had found for itself a little nook of green which the common wild flowers might not enter, and it grew 67

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The Snowflake Snowdrop, but the bend is less absolutely- determined. There is a tendency to relax into something of that arching curve, which in the Snowdrop but evinces weakness. Yet how beautiful do we find it here ; the uppermost pedicel straight and more sud- den in the bend, the lower ones starting off of necessity at sharper angles, and arching more and more perceptibly as we descend to the lowermost. The spathe has but little of the Snowdrop curve, but the pedicels look stiff and weak if it is cut away. And now we see the force of the bell-shape of the corolla, for the petals of the Snowdrop would be far too lengthy. So that the corolla has been shortened, in the first place, to get a fuller and rounder mass of colour, and we now find besides that the shortening of both corolla and spathe is equally necessary to fit them for the height to which they have been elevated. We have already noticed the deep green colour of the leaves. These are very long, and in their upper portion look singularly flat and strap-like, with a broad round point which seems cut off abruptly, nay, is absolutely notched in the middle. And this flatness and bluntness are taken, as usual, up by other parts of the plant. The 8l F

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Flowers and Gardens flowering it is bespotted here and there with little scarlet lady-birds, whose bright tints add most conspicuously to the beauty of the plant, and seem absolutely to belong to it. I do not know what they are doing there, — probably in search of insects or of other food, — but they furnish in their scarlet and black the very colour that is needed to set off the green by contrast. The plant is almost incomplete without them. I wonder if they are attached to it in its native country. 84

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Flowers and Gardens itS appearance and flowering, what it does with itself in the winter, whether drop- ping its leaves and standing bare-branched like a tree or shrub, or disappearing be- neath the ground like a Snowdrop or Hya- cinth, or facing the cold with a tuft of leaves lying close upon the earth like a Foxglove. What sort of locality does it love — field, rock, or marsh? How does it treat other plants when it encounters them ? Does it twine round them like a Convolvulus, creep over them like many trailing plants, or bear itself erect like the Buttercup? How does it wither? shab- bily and untidily like the Pansy, or in the neat, decorous mode of the Gentianella? These and all other facts which we can learn about a plant have a value in an imaginative point of view ; they tell us something about it, and so enable us to understand it, to read its true meaning and character. And we find that the sen- suous qualities have more than a sensuous value, for the imagination discovers that they are but a symbolic language, which we must receive as exponent of the hidden nature of a flower, just as the features of the human countenance are interpreters of the mind within. Now the faults of gardening, against 98

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Faults in Gardening surrounded with unpleasant associations, but at any rate you learn to see it without interest, and that is very mis- chievous. The consequence is that, generally speaking, we should either ex- clude these common native plants from the garden, or so alter them by cultiva- tion that they shall seem like a different thing. The Double Buttercup (Bachelor's Buttons) is a common country example of the way in which they may be so altered, and the Garden Daisies and Polyanthuses are still better examples, being more completely metamorphosed. Now this argument will generally tell most with respect to those native flowers which are less conspicuous, less remark- able for brilliancy and other garden- needed qualities. Thus the Bluebell and Forget-me-not lose infinitely more in the garden than the Globe Flower and the Columbine. Yet this is not all, as the Foxglove shows us ; there are the local associations, though these are actually very much more valuable in some plants than in others. When we see it in the garden we can scarcely appreciate the Foxglove — that glorious link betwixt the heath, the wood, and the open meadow — for want of the light grassed soil, 131

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Flowers and Gardens ture ; that of the double has a form so vague and featureless that we might easily forget that it was a flower at all, and think that we were looking at a magni- ficent bunch of delicately coloured ribbons. Yet when I speak of colour being sub- ordinated to a purpose in the single flower, I do not mean that it is in anywise of less importance. Colour is nowhere more brilliant and precious than in flowers, but the best effects must be got by judicious use, and not by lavish exuberance.^ In every instance where we have seen a flower only in its double state, we feel to know little about it, for it appears but half a flower. There is a plant common in gardens which I have been told is a species of Corchorus.^ I like what I know of it, and would gladly make its nearer ^ I would not deny that the double flower may at times gain greatly in colour taken as a whole. Look, for in- stance, at the double pink Hepatica, which appears in February and March, gleaming like a little amethyst amongst the Crocuses, the bright clear hue being doubly delightful from its rarity at that early season. Yet, after all, the pink and white Hepaticas are but inferior varieties of the blue, and no double modification of any of them is able to equal that. It will be seen too, that in even the single pink Hepatica the ordinary rule applies — it has more life expression than the double. 2 [The plant is the double Kerria japonica. It was called Corchorus till the single form was found, and the mistake was discovered. Kerria and Corchorus are of two quite distinct famihes. — H. N. E.] 148

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On Gardeners' Flowers acquaintance, but the double blossoms hold me quite aloof, and it seems little better than a stranger. Notwithstanding, in the double Rose and Peony, whatever may be the loss, the gain is in some re- spects great. There are other flowers, however, in which the case is widely different. Look, for instance, at the blos- som of a well-grown single Hollyhock, with its central column of white mealy stamens, around which the bees are for ever digging and burrowing, and observe how beautifully this column completes the deep bowl -like corolla, and then stand apart and see how by these columns the whole spire is illuminated, every part of it brought out into clear relief, as by a lamp placed in the centre of each flower. No mere alteration of colour could ever produce this effect. It is only to be got by an essential change of structure in the parts of the flower. Now would you think it possible that any one would be willing to throw away these beautiful stamens,^ and have the corolla choked up by a blind unmeaning mass of spongy 1 [In most double Hollyhocks the stamens remain ; for the double flower is a collection of single flowers within one involucrum, and so differs from the double Peony, in which the stamens are converted into petals. — H. N. E.] 149

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Editor's Preface would surely have taken a high rank among English authors, "the language is everywhere clear and concise, so that there is never any mistaking his meaning ; ^ and though he was evidently both a traveller and a great reader, there is no padding, no display of book learning, and a very marked absence of technical scientific language. It is quite de- lightful to read a book on Flowers and Gardens so entirely free from the numberless hackneyed quotations which generally over- burden such books ; and he must have put much restraint upon himself in keeping clear of such additions. This is very marked in his references to Ruskin, whom he reverenced as " the greatest and best of art teachers," yet though we may see RuskirCs influence there is not a single passage from his works. It is this that makes the book so fresh and original : it is all his own ; he wrote, not to make a pretty book, but to help others to find the same delights that had brightened his life; and his object has been gained, though he did not live to know of it. ^ The beauty of his language is in every page, but I would specially call attention to his fine description of the scorner,p. \i>i; and of the real beauty of decay, p. 199. XV b

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Editor's Preface / must add a few lines on my share in this new edition. The book has been exactly reprinted from the first edition, verbatim and literatim, with the exception of printers^ errors, so that no alteration has been made in the text; but I have thought it well to add a few short footnotes here and there, mostly in confirmation of what Forbes Watson had written, and in a very few cases in correction. H. N. E. Bitton, March 25, 1901.

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Flowers and Gardens still is there. And this, I believe, leads Milton to call the Violet " glowing." If it were not fragrant, the term would have little meaning ; as it is, an idea suggests itself that the flower is slowly burning, and an aroma rising up from it like incense.^ And it is singular to see what a very- faint perfume can give an impression of warmth. We often smell carefully at flowers without detecting the slightest odour, or perhaps nothing more than we find in the Snowdrop — a cold, feeble, unpleasant smell, like vegetable tissues crushed, which is altogether nugatory. But let there be real perfume, though faint as that of the Pyrus japonica or Crocus, and we recognise it at once as a warm atmosphere about the flower. The contrast between the Scented and the Dog Violet is a very remarkable one. How nearly they are alike in general aspect, yet how wide a difference in the details ! First there are the leaves. Those of the Scented Violet you can tell ' [There is undoubtedly some correlation between the scent and the heat of flowers. In several of the aro'ds the rise of temperature can be measured at the same time that the scent is most offensive. It is possible that this may be in all flowers, but too slight to be measured ; and it is only true with flowers — scented leaves are not so affected.— H. N. E.] 38

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Flowers and Gardens other plants, as Lilies, Narcissuses, or Violets. Now just such a healthy milk- fed look, just such a sweet healthy odour, is what we find in cows — an odour which breathes around them as they sit at rest in the pasture, and is believed by many, perhaps with truth, to be actually cura- tive of disease. So much, then, for the name of our plant. The " lips," of course, is but a general reference to the shape of the petals, and indicates the source of the fragrance.^ " Cowslips wan, that hang the pensive head," writes Milton in the " Lycidas." But this is not true. There certainly are some plants in which Nature seems to hint at an appearance of disease, and then by some special means converts it into a beauty. Take, for instance, the little gland-tipped hairs which clothe the young blossom-stalks of the flowering currant. They look, at first sight, a little ques- tionable, and we might doubt if they were not something like aphides or mildew. But, on examining closer, we find that 1 [Few plant-names have been more discussed than Cowslip ; but the N.E.D. has now proved that, whatever the association with the animal may have been, the first syllable is the Cow, and the last syllable has no connec- tion with human or other lips. — H. N. E.] 5°

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Flowers and Gardens ground. The bulk of the leaves, how- ever, point very markedly upwards, being the channels by which wet is con- ducted to the centre of the plant, so that we may often see them with but little of the bending-over appearance, and they always seem shortened just in time to prevent their running into languid- ness. Now turn the leaf sideways, and note the changed aspect of the margin from thence, still wavy, but more regular in its festooning, and sharp with emphatic vein-points. How this contrasts with our former view when we were looking at it rather from above ! But one of the most beautiful points in the Primrose is the manner in which the paleness of the flowers is taken up by the herbage. Thus look at that down upon the flower-stalks, which clothes them like a soft thin halo, and seems, when you nearly examine it, to resemble the white silky fibres of that lovely mildew which so often forms on things decaying in close places, a something so delicate and half-transparent you think that it might melt at a touch. Follow it thence to the under-surfaces of the leaves, with their white midribs and 64

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The Primrose veins, and see, with the plant at some little distance, what an exquisite soft- ness it produces there, faintly bedimming the already lighter green, and whitening like hoar-frogt when placed in certain aspects. At the down-turned margin of the leaf it stops, and never appears upon the upper surface. Now this pale- ness seems to hang about the plant like a mystery, for though the leaves of the Primrose may at times show a trace of the steady paleness of the Cowslip, it is more usually confined to their under surfaces, and the white flower-stalks with their clothing of down. And when we are looking at the Primrose, one or other of these downy changeful portions is continually coming into view, so that we get a feeling as if there hung about the whole a clothing of soft evanescent mist, thickening about the centre of the plant, and the under surfaces of the leaves which are less exposed to the sun. And then we reach one of the main expressions of the Primrose. When we look at the pale sweet flowers, and the soft-toned green of the herbage, softened further here and there by that uncertain mist of down, the dryness of the leaf and fur enters forcibly into 65 E

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Flowers and Gardens days to which we refer had little idea of producing pleasing and agreeable effects by means of masses of colour either har- moniously or contrastedly arranged. Their great aim was to possess a collection of species and genera, without much regard to the beauty of individuals, or the effect which they were capable of producing." ("Book of the Garden," vol. ii. p. 815.) Now I quite admit that the older system may have been a little at fault in the respects here mentioned, but we of the present day are running to exactly the opposite extreme. And whilst the old faults were of a purely negative kind, which did little if any mischief, the faults of our modern system are eminently cal- culated to vitiate the public taste. Has any of our readers, gifted with real love for flowers, ever walked through one of those older gardens, and observed the wide difference in its effect? I am not here speaking necessarily of the grounds of a mansion, but merely of such a garden as might often be found, some twenty years ago, attached to any good-sized house in a country town or village. Or even a little cottage plot of the kind so beautifully described by Clare will, to some extent, illustrate my meaning : —

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Flowers and Gardens do not say that every show-bed is wrong ; but, generally speaking, it is wrong to gather all beauty into one particular time or place ; and, above all, the spring flowers, as a whole, should be well scattered and intermixed with the summer plants, or we can never learn to love them as we ought. As to general effect, I would not have it neglected, but sought after in its noblest possible kind. I am only contending that justice to the whole effect of a bed or garden, instead of being incompatible with, is absolutely insepar- able from, justice to the individual flowers. The third fault of gardening — the too obvious use of mechanical contrivances, and other artificial interferences with the free development of the plant — is less the characteristic danger of our day. In many cases artificial helps are indispensable. It is unquestionably right to try to make flowers assume the best possible shapes, and if these are unattainable without such helps, the helps cannot always be objected to. A certain degree of constraint in the appearance of our gardens is absolutely necessary from the sort of plants we de- light in — the half-hardies and evergreens. The freedom and apparent carelessness, which would be good in better-assorted 114

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Faults in Gardening gardens, would here look slovenly and untidy. The beauty our cultivators prize is that of neatness and compactness. Na- ture gives us this in spring — the very season when we are most careless about our grounds — and we try to produce it in the summer-time, which was intended for a looser and freer growth. It is scarcely needful to dwell longer on this head. There are people even now so unfeeling as to clip their trees into the form of foun- tains and peacocks, and we sometimes see a bed of much-prized flowers so embarrassed with pots, hoops, sticks, and matting, that our interest in the flowers is destroyed — they seem like the inmates of a prison. But most people see the wrong of this, and the favourite flowers of the day are hardly of the kind which need it. It is singular how little a highly artificial treatment of certain plants will displease us, where things grow freely as a whole. I n a well-stocked kitchen garden how little we are annoyed by the fantastic shapes into which fruit-trees are often cut ; we pass them over like an ill- shaped tree or unsightly fence in the open country, amid the fulness of unembarrassed life. And the forms of the kitchen vege- tables — rhubarb, asparagus, and cabbage — are generally so magnificent. "5

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Flowers and Gardens petal ? ^ Yet such is actually the case. And once, when I went into the market to ask for single Hollyhocks, the gar- dener, civil as he was, seemed absolutely taken by surprise. " Single Hollyhocks ! No, sir, I wouldn't keep such things ! " The common Garden Anemone is an- other case in point : never was the effect of central organs better seen than in the single flower, where the stamens cluster so exquisitely around and into that black bee-like crown. Now the Anemone has some peculiar charm which excites in me an almost indescribable rapture, and that crown is as it were the very culmination of the whole. And I cannot but think that here, if not in the Hollyhock, the double flower which the gardeners so much prefer will be absolutely painful, from its inferiority, to any man of right feeling, who has the means of obtaining the single one. Now the effect of such false principles fully carried out may be seen in the taste of the common people. They will generally, under any circum- stances, prefer the highly cultivated flower ^ Unmeaning, that is, in comparison with what it re- places. The blossoms of the double Hollyhock have a full, noble form, but one can never heartily enjoy them from a sense of what is missing. ISO

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On Gardeners' Flowers to the simple one, just for that one quality of bigness and plumpness. In the same way, most vulgar people admire great red- faced women, and judge of the beauty of prize pigs and oxen by their size. There is the double Snowdrop — on the whole, I should think, the most ungainly flower we have. All the characteristic beauty of the Snowdrop, the delicate cur- vatures of the petals, the contrast betwixt the light, thin, flexible outer petals, and the inner, short, stout, unyielding cup, have wholly disappeared, in order that that light graceful form may be stuffed out as you would stuff a pillow-case, with a bunch of strips arranged like a pen- wiper. The gain here is positively nothing, for fulness in the Snowdrop is a real deformity. Yet the common people often say they would not give a straw for Snowdrops if they are not double ones. There are many other double flowers which are utterly bad, without any re- deeming quality, such as double Violets, Narcissuses, Tulips, and Nasturtiums. Lastly in double flowers how the shape of the petals is destroyed ! There is natu- rally a wide difference in form between the petals of a Saxifrage and those of a Cruciferous plant. Look, for instance, at 151

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FLOWERS AND GARDENS NOTES ON PLANT BEAUTY BY FORBES WATSON EDITED, WITH A PREFACE, BY REV. CANON ELLACOMBE VICAR OF BITTON, GLOUCESTERSHIRE ^ JOHN LANE: THE BODLEY HEAD LONDON AND NEW YORK MDCCCCII

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Flowers and Gardens Now all this the dot helps to accomplish. It emphasises just that point which should catch the eye at once, guiding it straight to the outlines or leading lines, and res- cuing the whole plant from what might otherwise appear but a confused patch of green. This plan of leading the eye is continually adopted by painters. There is a good example of it in Leonardo da Vinci's " Last Supper," where the radi- ating beams of the roof and main lines of the bodies of the disciples converge to- wards the head of Christ, thus carrying us at once to the grand point of the picture. The means which are used in different kinds of leaves to make the outlines more noticeable are often well worth examining. Sometimes it is by thickening, as in the case we have already mentioned, some- times by means exactly opposite. Very frequently, as in the Lily of the Valley, a thin line of cuticle surrounds the leaf, and gleams in the light by its transparency. In the common purple Iris of the gardens, where the leaf is like a broad sharp sword- blade, there is a gradual thinning from the centre towards the edges, as well as a translucent margin. So that, look at what distance you will, the large broad surfaces are easily distinguishable from 6

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The Snowdrop are, who have never needed repentance. And this less perfect old must perish, that from its death may arise the more perfect new. And though every form of life, whether high or low, has its own peculiar beauty, yet little here is lost in comparison with what we gain. Snow and ice are cold, deathlike, dreary. Here is a flower which preserves one of the choicest beauties of the snow, and shows what we might otherwise have deemed impossible — that this beauty can be made compatible with life of a more active kind. This is but one of the lower steps of the ladder which must end in heaven, point- ing us to a union of happinesses which cannot coexist on earth, where activity de- stroys contemplation, the fruit the flower, and the love of near relationship forbids the deepest kind. Are these thoughts fanciful or arbitrary ? Is it merely by accident that this flower awakens them, by some chance interweaving of its form with our feelings at the time of its birth, or is it not rather plain that every por- tion of its fabric was exactly framed with a view to awaken and express such feelings ? If arbitrary, the thought would be comparatively worthless ; its value IS

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Flowers and Gardens move it, here bright when it seems to catch the golden reflections from above, here darkening as we turn it into the shade. We might almost compare it to the darker yet luminous portion at the base of an ordinary gas-flame. To make out the cause of this let us break off a petal and examine it. We find the pearly surface still there, and unaltered except in its brilliancy being subdued. The colour is, therefore, evidently due in part to reflected light, as it seemed to be ; and this may easily be proved by further ex- periment. Let a narrow strip of black paper be inserted into the corolla, so as to cut off the light reflected from the sur- rounding walls, but not that which comes directly from the sun. The greater part of the brilliancy is now seen to be lost. Look again at the bottom of the corolla, where the stamens arise from it. There is a little ring of light around them which no change of position can affect. But if stamens and pistil be cut away, this light will disappear at once, showing that it is but a reflection, and very valuable, be- cause illuminating the point which light can least easily reach. But we have said that the change in the severed petals was not in kind, but

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Flowers and Gardens as only comparable to brightest gold, together with a restless glow which, as the sunbeams stir it, seems absolutely to leave the walls, and roll like a fiery atmosphere within. Is not gold the comparison best suited to embrace all this, and most poetical, because most strictly true? Here, then, is the use of our minute attention. I never noticed the golden gleaming of the Crocus until I began to look minutely. I can see it easily at a distance now, as an element of the ordinary colour. 26

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V The Cowslip FEW of our wild flowers give intenser pleasure than the Cowslip, yet per- haps there is scarcely any whose peculiar beauty depends so much upon locality and surroundings. We feel this especially when walking through some rich undulating pasture-country with well- grown trees and hedges, and far away from all thoughts of town, if we come suddenly upon a meadow with thousands of these flowers scattered over it like white flocks of early lambs ; and then, as we gather one after another the bunches of pale unequal fingers, how delicious it is to inhale the sweet odour, and look into the quaintly-spotted cups ! There is a homely simplicity about the Cowslip, much like that of the Daisy, though more pensive — the quiet sober look of an unpretending country-girl, not strikingly beautiful in feature or attire, 45

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Flowers and Gardens Cowslip, as we have said, is a singularly healthy - looking plant ; indeed, nothing about it is more remarkable. It has none of the delicacy and timidity of the Prim- rose. All its characters are well and healthily pronounced. The paleness is uniform, steady, and rather impresses us as whiteness, and the yellow of the cup is as rich as gold. The odour is not faint, but saccharine and luscious. It does not shrink into the sheltered covert, but courts the free air and sunshine of the open fields ; and instead of its flowers peeping timidly from behind surrounding leaves, it raises them boldly on a stout sufficient stalk, the most conspicuous ob- ject in the meadow. We have in the Cowslip no finer spiritual suggestions, none of the more evanescent and retir- ing beauties, except perhaps in the sleek white skin, with its exquisite softness of tone. Its poetry is the poetry of common life, but of the most delicious common life that can exist. The plant is in some respects careless to the verge of disorder ; and you should note that carelessness well till you feel the force of it, as especially in the lame imperfection of the flower buds, only, perhaps, half of them well developed, and the rest dangling 53

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Flowers and Gardens compared. But the white dots in the Buttercup are changes in the colour of the leaf, whilst those of the Globe Flower are little translucent spaces in the angles of the margin. 70

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PART II GARDENS

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Faults in Gardening place, and alters everything near ; for- bids the approach of some weaker neigh- bour, and encounters the thrust of some stronger one in its turn. When plants are made movable their personality is half destroyed, and by confining attention to them exclusively at the time of flower- ing, we complete the mischief. The plant is never old, never young ; in fact, it de- generates from a plant into a coloured ornament. Look at a Scarlet Geranium, as you sometimes see it in a greenhouse, with long woody stems continuing from year to year ; it may be somewhat un- tidy, but it can make you love it, and can well bear comparison in this respect with the more brilliant offslips of. the border. And cannot you see how in these show-beds all hope is taken away ? If covered with spring flowers, these are all in bloom together. Of course we know that there are summer flowers to follow, but they do not stand full of radiant promise amongst the earlier ones, to please us by the contrast. They have not yet been put in. How hopeless and artificial, how unlike Nature, is all this ! — Nature, which keeps us in perpetual ex- pectation, in literally unbroken round, from year's beginning to year's end. I 113 H

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Flowers and Gardens haired lady of the garden. To what pitch of degradation must that man's taste have sunk who could reject and despise so elegant a tree as this ! Note 2 But why should we not receive the garden as a pure creation of the gar- dener, feel that it is beautiful, and be satisfied with that, without looking any further ? The question is implicitly an- swered in the last chapter. Because in such a manner we shall never gain a strong interest in the individual flowers. Unfortunately, this easy course is the very one which most people prefer to take, and which the gardeners desire that they should take. But to feel deep de- light in plants, and yet think little about them — to love, and not wish to know intimately the object loved — is a palpable impossibility. When people act in this way, their feelings cannot be worth much. Besides, to an unspoiled taste the beauty of our modern gardens is in many re- spects unpleasing, and we greatly miss the higher kind of beauty of which it is depriving us. 120

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II On Gardeners' Flowers I THINK that the question left from last chapter will be most advan- tageously treated in a somewhat more extended form. So we will now inquire into the mischief which is done to taste by a too exclusive atten- tion to highly cultivated plants. A flower in its natural state, as for instance the Primrose or Buttercup, will generally con- sist of the following elements : an outer ring, green and leaf-like, which is called the calyx, and an inner ring, usually coloured, the corolla. These are but the floral envelopes, and either of them may be modified in all manner of ways, — being coloured, colourless (which in bo- tanical language means green), or alto- gether wanting. Within them lies the true flower, composed of the thread-like, pin headed stamens, and the central organs, or pistils, which afterwards ripen 138

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On Gardeners' Flowers rightly than another man. I admit that there may be some botanists who are nothing more than hard-headed collectors of names, to whom plants are but hooks on which labels may be hung. But botanists of another class have in this respect been much misrepresented, because they do not, or perhaps cannot, speak out their thoughts. That man who appears only to be seeking after rare or novel species, who may never seem to notice or be interested in mere scientific arrange- ments, is perhaps tremblingly alive to the beauty of what he finds ; and the beauty is of more importance than the science, as the heart is nobler than the head. You may not be able to see what good such an one may get by running on from form to form, as eagerly as if seeking after gold, and perhaps he himself could not tell you ; but if God thought it worth His while to plan these forms, it is surely not beneath the dignity of man to study them. In short, then, a botanist's love for simple natural flowers is generally the evidence of an uncorrupted taste. He has had absolutely nothing to mislead him, for his original motive in the study can seldom be other than the pure inspiration of love ; and the study itself is large and wide, embracing without any exclusiveness great and small, 163

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On Gardeners' Flowers over with bright red, or tricksily wrought out in cream colour. Occasional variega- tion in the leaves is now and then pleasing, though this can hardly ever be the case where plants bear brilliant flowers. Thus I like to see the Variegated Holly, or the creamy stripes of Ribbon Grass. These last are especially beautiful, because fol- lowing the form of the leaf, instead of breaking it up like the Geranium white- wash I have mentioned. But the grass has no coloured flowers to spoil. And observe, when the berries appear upon the Variegated Holly how inferior its effect becomes. We wish for the green leaves then. Amongst other leaf deformities, who has not noticed that hedgehog-leaved Holly, where the flat surface of the leaf is trained to put forth prickles ? ^ What pos- sible beauty can there be in this? High cultivation will always have its dangers, a tendency to strain after new effects of any sort, as witness the abominable colours of some of the most highly trained Pansies in our markets ; but high cultivation, when once started, as in the case of this variegated foliage, upon tracks which are radically wrong, can only produce evil without end. 1 [The Hedgehog Holly is not a trained form ; it is a wild variety of the Common Holly. — H. N. E.] 177 M

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