LIBRARY ANNEX ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New YorK STATE COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE AND HomE EcoNoMIcs AT CoRNELL UNIVERSITY Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924002827156 THE WILD GARDEN. Works by the same Author. ALPINE FLOWERS FOR ENGLISH GARDENS. With 70 Illustrations. THE PARKS, PROMENADES, AND GARDENS OF PARIS, With 430 Illustrations. MUSHROOM CULTURE: its Extension and Improve- ment. With Illustrations. ‘«T wish it to be framed, as much as may be, to a naturall wildnesse.” LorD Bacon. THE WILD GARDEN OR, OUR GROVES & SHRUBBERIES MADE BEAUTIFUL BY THE NATURALIZATION OF HARDY EXOTIC PLANTS : WITH A CHAPTER ON THE GARDEN OF BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. af yy By W. ROBINSON, AUTHOR OF “* ALPINE FLOWERS FOR ENGLISH GARDENS,” ‘‘ THE PARKS, PROMENADES, AND GARDENS OF PARIS,” ETC. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1870. Qa LONDON SAVILL, EDWARDS AND CO., PRINTERS, CHANDOS STRERT, COVENT GARDEN. CONTENTS, PAGE EXPLANATORY. 2. 2 8 © «© # @ © @ « # « FT PART II. AN ENUMERATION OF HARDY EXOTIC PLANTS, SUITABLE FOR NATURALIZATION IN OUR WOODS, SEMI-WILD PLACES, SHRUBBERIES, &c., WITH THE NATIVE. COUNTRY, GENERAL CHARACTER, HEIGHT, COLOUR, TIME OF FLOWERING, MODE OF PROPAGATING, AND THE POSITIONS MOST SUITABLE FOR EACH » + 39 PART III. SELECTIONS OF HARDY EXOTIC PLANTS FOR NATURALI- ZATION IN VARIOUS POSITIONS . . . . « « 123 PART IV. THE GARDEN OF BRITISH WILD FLOWERS . . « - 155 “I went, for the first time in my life, some years ago, to stay at a very grand and beautiful place in the country, where the grounds are said to be laid out with consummate taste. For the first three or four days I was perfectly enchanted; it seemed something so much better than nature that I really began to wish the earth had been laid out according to the latest principles of improvement. . . . In three days’ time I was tired to death: a thistle, a nettle, a heap of dead bushes—anything that wore the appearance of accident and want of intention—was quite arelief. used to escape from the made grounds, and walk upon an adjacent goose-common, where the cart-ruts, gravel-pits, bumps, irregu- larities, coarse ungentlemanlike grass, and all the varieties produced by neglect, were a thousand times more gratifying than the monotony of beauties the result of design, and crowded into narrow confines.” Sypney SMITH. PART LI. EXPLANATORY. THE WILD GARDEN. To understand the aim of this little book, it is desirable to take a broad glance at the past and present state of our flower-gardens. From about twenty years ago, back to the time of Shake- speare, the flowers of an English garden were nearly all hardy ones: they came from northern or temperate regions, in most cases from climates very like our own; they were as hardy as our weeds ; they bloomed early in the keen spring air, and late in the wet autumn gusts, as well as in the favoured summer’s day. The daughters of the year, One after one, thro’ that still garden passed. Passages from our greatest poets and writers— Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon, and others—embody the names of the principal classes of flowers used in this ancient style of gardening, and show us what infinite delight it was capable of affording ; and its B2 4 The Wild Garden. charms we may yet see in little cottage gardens in Kent, Sussex, and many other parts of England, though the scarlet geranium has begun to eradicate all the fair blossoms of many a sweet little garden, once, and often yet, ‘“ embowered in fruit trees and forest trees, evergreens and honeysuckles rising many-coloured from amid shaven grass plots, flowers struggling in through the very windows. . . where, especially on long summer nights, a king might have wished to sit and smoke and call it his.” From these little Elysiums, where the last glimpses of beautiful old English gardening may yet be seen, we will now turn to the modern system which re- places it. About a generation ago a taste began to be manifested for placing a number of tender plants in the open air in summer, with a view to the produc- tion of showy masses of decided colour. The sub- jects selected were mostly from sub-tropical climates and of free growth ; placed in the open air of our genial early summer, and in fresh rich earth, every year they grew rapidly and flowered abundantly during the summer and early autumn months, and until cut down by the first frosts. The bril- liancy of tone resulting from this system was very attractive, and since its introduction there has Explanatory. 5 been a gradual rooting out of all the old favourites in favour of the bedding system. This was carried to such an extent that of late it has not been un- common, indeed it has been the rule, to find the largest gardens in the country without a single hardy flower, all energy and expense being devoted to the production of the many thousand exotics re- quired for the summer decoration. It should be distinctly borne in mind that the expense for this system is an annual one; that no matter what amount of money may be spent in this way, no matter how many years may be devoted to perfect- ing it, the first sharp frost of November merely prepares a yet further expense and labour. Its highest results need hardly be described ; they are seen in all our great public gardens ; our London and many other city parks show them in the shape of beds filled with vast quantities of flowers, covering the ground frequently in a showy way, and not unfrequently in a repul- sively gaudy manner: every private garden is taken possession of by the same simple beauties. Occasionally some variety is introduced. We go to Kew or the Crystal Palace to see what looks best there, or the weekly gardening papers tell us ; and the following season sees tens of thousands of 6 The Wild Garden. the same arrangements and patterns scattered all over the country. I will not here enter into the question of the comparative advantages of the two systems; it is enough to state that even on its votaries the system at present in fashion is beginning to pall. Some are looking back with regret to the old mixed-border gardens ; others are endeavouring to soften the harshness of the bedding system by the introduction of fine-leaved plants, but all are agreed that a great mistake has been made in de- stroying all our sweet old border flowers, from tall Lilies to dwarf Hepaticas, though very few persons indeed have any idea of the numbers of: beautiful subjects in this way which we may gather from every northern and temperate clime. What is to be done? Every garden should have a mixed border, but except in the little cottage gardens before alluded to—“umbrageous man’s nests,” as Mr. Carlyle calls them, gardens depen- dent on it solely are quite out of the question. It is also clear that, base and frightfully opposed to every law of nature’s own arrangement of living things as is the bedding system, it has yet some features which deserve to be retained on a small scale. My object is now to show how we may, without losing the better features of the mixed Explanatory. 4 bedding or any other system, follow one infinitely Superior to any now practised, yet supplementing both, and exhibiting more of the varied beauty of hardy flowers than the most ardent admirer of the old style of garden ever dreams of. We may do this by naturalizing or making wild innumerable beautiful natives of many regions of the earth in our woods, wild and semi-wild places, rougher parts of pleasure grounds, etc., and in unoccupied places in almost every kind of garden. I allude not to the wood and brake flora of any one alp or chain of alps, but to that which finds its home in the immeasurable woodlands that fall in furrowed folds from beneath the hoary heads of all the great mountain chains of the world, whether they rise from hot Indian plains or green European pastures. The Palm and sacred Fig, as well as the Wheat and the Vine, are separated from the stem- less plants that cushion under the snow for half the year, by a zone of hardier and not less beautiful life, varied as the breezes that whisper on the mountain sides, and as the little rills that seam them. I alludeto the Lilies, and Bluebells, and Foxgloves, and Irises, and Windflowers,and Columbines, and Aconites, and Rock-roses, and Violets, and Cranesbills, and count- less Pea-flowers, and mountain Avens, and Brambles, 8 The Wild Garden. and Cinquefoils, and Evening Primroses, and Cle- matises, and Honeysuckles, and Michaelmas Daisies, and Feverfews, and Wood-hyacinths, and Daffodils, and Bindweeds, and Forget-me-nots, and sweet blue Omphalodes, and Primroses, and Day Lilies, and Asphodels, and St. Bruno’s Lilies, and the. almost innumerable plants which form the flora of regions where, though life is yet rife on every inch of ground, and we are enjoying the verdure and the temperature of our lowland’ meadows, there is a “sense of a great power beginning to be mani- fested in the earth, and of a deep and majestic concord in the rise of the long low lines of piny hills; the first utterances of those mighty moun- tain symphonies, soon to be more loudly lifted and wildly broken along the battlements of the Alps. But their strength is as yet restrained, and the far-reaching ridges of pastoral mountains succeed each other, like the long and sighing swell which moves over quiet waters, from some far-off stormy sea, And there is a deep tenderness pervading that vast monotony. The destructive forces, and. the stern expression of the central ranges, are alike withdrawn. No frost-ploughed, dust-encumbered paths of the ancient glacier fret the soft Jura pas- tures ; no splintered heaps of ruin break the fair Explanatory. 9 ranks of her forests; no pale, defiled, or furious rivers rend their rude and changeful ways among her rocks. Patiently, eddy by eddy, the clear green streams wind along their well-known beds; and under the dark quietness of the undisturbed pines there spring up, year by year, such company of joyful flowers as I know not the like of among all the blessings of the earth. It was spring-time, too; and all were coming forth in clusters crowded for very love. There was room enough for all, but they crushed their leaves into all manner of strange shapes, only to be nearer each other. There was the Wood Anemone, star after star, closing every now and then into nebule ; and there was the Oxalis, troop by troop, like virginal processions of the Mois de Marie, the dark vertical clefts in the limestone choked up with them as with heavy snow, and touched with Ivy on the edges— Ivy as light and lovely as the Vine ; and, ever and anon, a blue gush of Violets and Cowslip bells in sunny places; and in the more open ground, the Vetch, and Comfrey, and Mezereon, and the small sapphire buds of the alpine Polygala, and the Wild Strawberry, just a blossom or two, all showered amidst the golden softness of deep, warm, amber- coloured moss.” 10 The Wild Garden. This is a picture of but one of innumerable and infinitely varied scenes in the wilder parts of all northern and temperate regions, at many different elevations. The loveliness and cease- lessly varying charms of such scenes are indeed difficult to describe or imagine; the essential thing to bear in mind is that the plants that go to form them are hardy, and will thrive in our climate as well as native plants. Such beauty may be realized in every wood and, copse and wild shrubbery that screens our “trim gardens.” Naturally our woods and wilds have no small loveliness in spring ; we have here and there the Lily-of-the-valley and the Snowdrop wild, and everywhere the exquisite Primrose and Cowslip ; the Bluebell and the Foxglove sometimes take nearly complete possession of whole woods, and turn them into paradises of vernal beauty ; but, with all our treasures in this way, we have no attractions in semi- wild places compared to what it is within our power to create. A certain number of beautiful plants occur amongst the weeds in our woods, and there we stop. But there are many countries with winters as cold as, or colder than, our own, possessing a rich flora ; and by taking the best hardy exotics and establishing them with the best of our own wild Explanatory. 11 flowers in wild or half-wild spots near our houses and gardens, we may produce the most charming results ever seen in such places. To most people a pretty plant in the wild state is more attractive than any garden denizen. It is free, and taking care of itself, it has had to contend with and has over- come weeds which, left to their own sweet will in a garden, would soon leave very small trace of the plants therein; and, moreover, it is usually surrounded by some degree of graceful wild spray —the green above, and the moss and brambles and grass around. Many will say with Tennyson, in “ Amphion,’— Better to me the meanest weed That blows upon its mountain, The vilest herb that runs to seed Beside its native fountain— but by the means presently to be explained, num- bers of plants, neither “mean ” nor “vile,” but of the highest order of beauty and fragrance, and clothed with the sweetest associations, may be seen to greater perfection, wild as weeds, in the spaces now devoted to rank grass and weeds in our shrub- beries, ornamental plantations, and by wood walks, than ever they were in our gardens. My reasons for advocating this system, as I do, 12 The Wild Garden. are as follows : jirs¢, because hundreds of the finest hardy flowers will thrive much better in the places I recommend for them than ever they did in the old-fashioned border. Even comparatively small ones, like the ivy-leaved Cyclamen, a beautiful plant that we rarely find in perfection in gardens, I have seen perfectly naturalized and spread all over the mossy surface of a thin wood. Secondly, because they will look infinitely better than ever they did in gardens, in consequence of fine-leaved plant, fern, and flower, and climber, ornamental grass and dwarf trailing shrub, mutually relieving each other in ways innumerable as delightful. Any one of a thousand combinations, which this book will suggest to the intelligent reader, will prove as far superior to any aspect of the old mixed border, or the ordinary type of modern flower-garden, as is a lovely mountain valley to a country in which the eye can see but canals and hedges. Thirdly, be- cause, arranged as I propose, no disagreeable effects result from decay. The raggedness of the old mixed border after the first flush of spring and early sum- mer bloom had passed was intolerable, bundles of decayed stems tied to sticks making the place look like the parade-ground of a number of crossing- sweepers with their “arms piled.” When Lilies are Explanatory. 13 sparsely dotted through masses of Rhododendrons as I recommend, their flowers are admired more than if they were in isolated showy masses; when they pass out of bloom they are unnoticed amidst the vegetation, and not eyesores, as when in rigid unrelieved tufts in borders, &c. Ina wild or semi- wild state, the beauty of individual species will pro- claim itself when at its height; and when passed out of bloom, they will be succeeded by other kinds, or lost among the numerous objects around. Fourthly, because it will enable us to grow hun- dreds of plants that have never yet obtained a place in our “trim gardens,” nor ever will be ad- mitted therein. I allude to the multitudes of plants which, not being so showy as those usually con- sidered worthy of a place in gardens, are never seen there. The flowers of many of these are of the highest order of beauty, especially when seen in numbers. An isolated tuft of one of these, seen in a formal border, may not be considered worthy of a place at any time—in some wild glade, in a wood, associated with other subjects, its effect may be exquisite. We do not usually cultivate Gorse or Buttercups, yet Mr. Wallace, the distinguished natu- ralist and traveller, says—“ During twelve years spent amidst the grandest tropical vegetation, I have 14 The Wild Garden. seen nothing comparable to the effect produced on our landscapes by Gorse, Broom, Heather, Wild Hyacinths, Hawthorn, and Buttercups;” and these are but a few conspicuous members of our indigenous flora, which is by no means as rich as those of many other cold countries! In every county in the British Isles there are numbers of country seats in which one hundred types of vege- tation, novel, yet as beautiful as, or more beautiful than, those admired by Mr. Wallace, may be estab- lished ; for there are in the colder parts of Europe, Asia, and other countries, Heaths handsomer than those usually grown, many “wild Hyacinths” be- sides the common English one, many finer “ Butter- cups” than those commonly seen, and numbers of Hawthorns besides our common May ; not to speak of many other families and plants equally beautiful. Among the subjects that are usually considered unfit for garden cultivation may be included a goodly number that, grown in gardens, are little addition to them ; I mean subjects like the American Asters, Golden Rods, and like plants, which merely tend to hide the beauty of the choicer and more beautiful border-flowers when planted amongst them. These coarse subjects would be quite at home in copses and woody places, where their blossoms Explanatory. 15 might be seen or gathered in due season, and their vigorous vegetation form a covert welcome to the game preserver, To these two groups might be added subjects like the winter Heliotropes, the hand- some British Epilobium angustifolium, and many other plants which, while attractive in the garden, are apt to spread about so rapidly as to become a nuisance there. Clearly these should only be planted in wild and semi-wild places. /7/thly, because we may in this way settle also the question of spring flowers, and the spring garden, as well as that of hardy flowers generally. In the way I suggest, many parts of every country garden, and many suburban ones, may be made alive with spring flowers. The blue stars of the Apennine Anemone will be seen to greater advantage “ wild,” in shady or half- shady bare places, under trees, than in any con- ceivable formal arrangement, and it is but one of hundreds of sweet spring flowers that will succeed perfectly in the way I propose. Szrthly, because there can be few more agreeable phases of com- munion with nature than naturalizing the natives ef countries in which we are infinitely more sneerested than in those of greenhouse or stove plants. From the walls of the Coliseum, the prairies of the New World, the woods and meadows of all 16 The Wild Garden. the great mountains of Europe; from Greece and Italy and Spain, from the sunny hills of Asia Minor ; from the arctic regions of the great conti- nents—in a word, from almost every region inte- “resting to the traveller he may bring seeds or plants and establish round his home the pleasantest souvenirs of the various scenes he has visited. Moreover, the great merit of permanence belongs to this delightful phase of gardening. Select a wild rough slope, and embellish it with the handsomest and hardiest climbing plants,—say the noble moun- tain Clematis from Nepal, the sweet C. Flammula from Southern Europe, and the magnificent new hybrid Clematises, (if the earth be rich and there are rocks and banks on which they can be so arranged that they will not be overrun by coarser kinds, and that their masses of shoots may spread and bask in the sun till they glow into sheets of purple of various shades) “Virginian creepers” in variety, Rubus biflorus, with its whitewashed stems, and other kinds; various species of hardy vines, Aristolochias, Jasmines, Honeysuckles— British and European, wild Roses, etc. Arranged with some judgment at first, such a colony might be left to take care of itself; time would but add to its attractions, and the owner might go away for ten, Explanatory. 17 years, and find it more beautiful than ever on his return. As much may be said of all the other com- binations which I suggest. I will now endeavour to illustrate my meaning by showing what may be done with a few diverse types of northern vegetation. We will take the Forget-me-not order to begin with, and as that is one far from being as rich as others in subjects suited for naturalization, the reader may be able to form some idea of what we may do, in this way, by selecting from the numerous families of plants that grow in the meadows and mountain-woods of Europe, Asia, and America. The Forget-me-not or Borage family is a well- marked and well-known one, containing a great number of coarse and ugly weeds, but which, if it in- cluded only the common Forget-me-not among its beauties, would have some claims to our attention. Many persons are not acquainted with more than a couple of the Forget-me-nots ; but what lovely exotic plants there are in this order that would afford delight if. met with creeping about along our wood and shrubbery walks! Nature, say some, is sparing of her deep true blues, and generally spreads them forth on the high Alps, where the Gentians bloom near to the sky; but there are Cc 18 The Wild Garden. obscure plants in this order that possess the truest, deepest, and most delicate of blues, and which will thrive as well in the positions I allude to as common weeds. The Gentians and high alpine plants require some care in our sluggish lowlands, but not so these. The creeping Omphalodes verna even surpasses the Forget-me-not in the depth and beauty of its blue and its general good qualities, and runs about quite freely in any shady or half-shady shrubbery, wood, or rough rockwork. Its proper home is the wood or semi-wild spot, where it takes care of itself. Put it in a garden, and probably, unless the soil and re- gion be moist, it soon perishes. Besides, in the border, it would be a not very agreeable object when once the sweet spring bloom had passed ; whereas in the positions spoken of, in consequence of the predominance of trees, shrubs, and tall herbs, the low plants are not noticed when out of flower, but crawl about unobserved till returning spring re- minds those fortunate enough to see them how chaste and superior is the inexpensive and natural kind of gardening here advocated. Another plant of the order is so suitable and use- ful for this purpose, that if a root or two of it be planted in any shrubbery, it will soon run about, exterminate the weeds, and prove quite a lesson Explanatory. 19 in wild and natural gardening. I allude to the beautiful Caucasian Comfrey (Symphytum cauca- sicum), which grows about twenty inches high, and bears quantities of the loveliest blue pendulous flowers. It, like many others, does much better in a wood, grove, or any kind of shrubbery, than in any other position, just filling in the naked spaces be- tween the trees and shrubs, and has a quick-growing and spreading tendency, but never becomes weedy or objectionable. As if to contrast with it, there is the deep crimson Bohemian Comfrey (S. bohemi- cum), which is sometimes startling from the depth of its vivid colouring, and the white Comfrey (S. orientale), quite a vigorous-growing kind, blooming early in April and May, with the blue Caucasian C. I purposely omit the British Forget-me-nots, wishing now chiefly to show what we may do with exotics quite as hardy as our own wildings ; and we have another Forget-me-not, not British, which sur- passes them all—the early Myosotis dissitiflora. This is like a patch of the bluest sky settled down among the moist stones of a rockwork or any similar spot before our own Forget-me-not has opened its blue eyes, and is admirable for glades or banks in wood or shrubbery, especially in moist districts. C2 20 The Wild Garden. For rocky bare places and sunny sandy banks we have the spreading Gromwell (Lithospermum prostratum), which, when in flower, looks just as if some exquisite alpine Gentian had assumed the form of a matted hispid bush, to enable it to hold its own among creeping things and stouter herbs than accompany it on the Alps. Also the dwarf spring-blooming Lungworts (Pulmonarias), the handsome profuse-flowering Italian Bugloss (An- chusa),and the Apennine Hounds-tongue (Cynoglos- sum), and that strong old plant the Cretan Borage (generally known as Nordmannia cordifolia), which opens its lavender-blue and conspicuous flowers in early spring, and is tall and strong enough to main- tain its position even among Docks or Nettles. It would be found to delight in any old lane or by- path with the winter Heliotrope or the like, while there would be no fear of its becoming a weed, like that sweet-scented wilding. We will next turn from the Forget-me-not order to avery different type of vegetation—hardy bulbs. Howmanyof us really enjoy the beauty which a judi- cious use of a profusion of good and cheap Spring Bulbs is certain to throwaround acountry seat orvilla garden? How many get beyond the miserable con- ventionalities of modern gardening, with its edgings Explanatory. 21 and patchings, and taking up, and drying, and mere playing with our beautiful Spring Bulbs? How many enjoy the exquisite beauty afforded by Spring flowers of this type, established naturally, and crop- ping up full of beauty, without troubling us for attention at any time? None. The subject of deco- rating with Spring Bulbs is merely in its infancy ; at present we merely place a few of the showiest of them in geometrical lines. The little we do leads to such a very poor end, that numbers of people, alive to the real charms of a garden too, scarcely notice Spring Bulbs at all, regarding them as things which require endless trouble, as interfering with the “bedding-out,” and in fact, as not worth the pains they occasion. This is likely to be the case so long as the most effective and satisfactory of all modes of arranging them is quite unused by the body of the gardening public; that way is the placing of them in wild and semi-wild parts of country seats and gardens, and in the rougher parts of a garden, no matter where it may be situated or how it may be arranged. It is a way never practised now, but which I venture to say will yield more real interest and exquisite beauty than any other. Look, for instance, at the wide and bare belts of grass that wind in and around the shrubberies in 22 The Wild Garden. nearly every country place; generally, they never display a particle of plant-beauty, and are merely places to be roughly mown now and then. But if planted here and there with the Snowdrop, the blue Anemone, the Crocus, Squills, and Winter Aco- nite, they would in spring surpass in attractiveness to the tasteful eye the primmest and gayest of spring gardens. Cushioned among the grass, these would have a more congenial medium in which to unfold than is offered by the beaten sticky earth of a border: in the budding emerald grass of spring, their natural bed, they would look far better than ever they do when arranged on the brown earth of a garden. Once carefully planted, they—while an annual source of the greatest interest—occasion no trouble whatever. Their leaves die down so early in spring that they would scarcely interfere with the mowing of the grass, if that were desired, but I should not attempt to mow the grass in such places till the season of vernal beauty had quite passed by. Surely it is enough to have the lawn as smooth as a carpet at all times, without sending the mower to shave the “long and pleasant grass” of the remoter parts of the grounds. It would indeed be ‘well worth while to leave many parts of the grass Explanatory. 23 unmown for the sake of growing Spring Bulbs. Observe how the poet’s eye is caught by the buttercups that “shine like gold” there ; and we, who are continually talking of our “horticultural skill and progress,” never so much as get near the effect produced by this very glinting field of butter- cups, or attain to anything which at all equals it in beauty, although our opportunities to do so are un- rivalled ! Now suppose a poet, with an eye for natu- ral beauty, or an artist, or any person of taste, to come upon some spot where a wide fringe of grass spreads out in the bay of a shrubbery or plantation, and upon this carpet of rising and unshaven verdure there were dotted, in addition to the few pretty natural flowers that happened to take possession of it, the blue Apennine Anemone, the Snowdrop, Crocuses, “both the yellow and the gray,” as Lord Bacon has it, Scillas in variety, Grape Hyacinths, Wood Anemone, and any other pretty Spring flowers that you found suitable to your soil and position—say, for instance, a sprinkling of the Sweet Violet— what would you have done for him here? Why, more than the gardener has ever yet accomplished, because you would have given him a glimpse of the choicest vernal beauty of temperate and northern climes, every flower 24, The Wild Garden. relieved by grass blades and green leaves, the whole devoid of any trace of man and his mud- dlings in the earth, or his exceeding weakness for tracing wall-paper patterns, where everything should be varied, indefinite, and changeful, as the flowers that bloom and die; and he would acknowledge that you had indeed caught the true meaning of nature in her disposition of vegetation, without ‘ sacrificing one jot of anything in your garden, but, on the other hand, adding the highest beauty to spots hitherto devoid of the slightest interest. It is not only to places in which shrubberies, and plantations, and belts of grass in the rougher parts of the pleasure-ground, and shady moss-bordered wood-walks occur that these remarks apply. The suburban gardener, with his single fringe of planting, may do likewise, to some extent, with the best taste. He may have the Solomon’s Seal arching forth from a shady recess behind a tuft of the sweet-scented Narcissus, while in every case he can make preparations for wild fringes of strong and hardy spring flowers. In front of a shrubbery with a sunny aspect is the best of all places for a cheerful display in early spring, as the shelter and warmth combined make them open forth in all their glory Explanatory. 25 under a spring sun, and they cannot be cut off by harsh winds as when exposed in the open garden. What has already been stated is, I hope, sufficient to hint to everybody the kind of place that may be used for their culture. Wild and semi-wild places, rough banks in or near the pleasure-ground or flower-garden, such spots as perhaps at present contain nothing but weeds, or any naturally rough or unused spot about a garden—such are the places’ I recommend. It is true there are thousands of places without these, and where every inch of the lawn must be mown; but even on such the Snowdrop may be enjoyed in early spring, for its leaves die down, or at all events ripen sufficiently before there is any occasion to mow the grass. I have spoken of the Buttercups ; let us next see what may be done with the order to which they be- long. It embraces many subjects widely diverse in aspect from these burnished ornaments of northern meadows and mountains. The first thing I should take from it to perennially embellish the wild wood is the sweet-scented Virgin’s Bower (Clematis Flam- mula), a native of the south of Europe, but as hardy and free in all parts of Britain as the common Haw- thorn. And as the Hawthorn sweetens the breath of early summer, so will this add fragrance to the 26 The Wild Garden. autumnal months. It is never to be seen half so beautiful as when crawling over some old rockwork or decayed stumps of trees; it is excellent for gathering in wreaths for use along with other flowers in autumn; and if its profuse masses of white bloom do not attract, its fragrance is sure to do so. An open glade in a wood, or open spaces on banks near a wood or shrubbery, would be charming for it; while in the garden or pleasure-ground it may be used as a creeper over old stumps, trellising, or the like. C. campaniflora, with flowers like a cam- panula, and of a pale purplish hue, and the beau- tiful white Clematis montana grandiflora, a native of Nepaul, are almost equally beautiful, and many others of the family are worthy of naturalization. The fine new hybrids and varieties (in the way of C. lanuginosa) will, on good warm sandy soil, spread over the ground without any support or training, and in the most luxuriant way. In making mixed borders, rockwork, fringes of plantation, or anything of the kind, we must not be confined by any rules except those of the judgment, and must draw from all sorts of stores ; therefore these new varieties of Clematis should not be overlooked, and if one were making a bold rockwork, a grand use might be made of them for dressing precipitous points with Explanatory. a4 richest colour and noblest flowers, putting the roots in a position where they could descend at pleasure into a rich and deep vein of good earth. The warmth of the recumbént position on the stone, and the shelter, could not fail to make them feel at home, and I can imagine nothing more effective than a sheet of these falling over the face of such large stones as those in the rockwork at Chatsworth, and a few other gardens where large things in this way have been attempted. The beauty displayed by these large varieties of Clematis when planted in a deep light soil is only to be realized by those who have seen it. Next we come to the Wind Flowers, or Ane- mones, and here we must pause to select, for a more attractive class of hardy flowers does not beautify any northern clime. Have youa bit of bare, stony ground, slightly shaded perhaps? If so, the beautiful downy white and yellow Anemones of the Alps (A. alpina and A. sulphurea) may be grown there. Any kind of wood or shrubbery which you wish to embellish with the choicest vernal beauty? Then select Anemone blanda,a small but lovely blue kind ; place it in open bare spots to begin with, as it is very dwarf, and it will at Christmas, and from that time onward through the spring, open flowers 28 The Wild Garden. as large as a five-shilling piece, and of the deepest sky blue. The common garden Anemone (A. Coro- naria) will not be fastidious, but had better be placed in open bare places ; ‘and the splendid Ane- mone fulgens, when it can be spared for the pur- pose, will prove a most attractive ornament, as it glows with the most fiery scarlet. It should have an open spot where the herbage is dwarf. Of other Anemones, hardy, free, and beautiful enough to be made wild in our shrubberies, pleasure-grounds, and wilds, the Japan Anemone (A. japonica), and its white descendant, A. j. Honorine Jobert, A. trifolia, and A. sylvestris, are the best of the exotic species. The Japan Anemone and A. hybrida, and the white Honorine Jobert, grow so strongly that they will take care of themselves even among stiff brushwood, brambles, &c. ; and they are beautifully fitted for scattering along the low, half-wild margins of shrub- beries, &c. The interesting little A. trifolia is not unlike our own wood Anemone, and will grow in similar places. As for the Apennine Anemone, it is simply one of the loveliest spring flowers of any clime, and should be in every garden, in the borders, and scat- tered thinly here and there in woods and shrubberies, so that it may become “ naturalized.” The flowers Explanatory. 29 are freely produced, and of the loveliest blue. It is scarcely a British flower “to the manner born,” so to speak, being a native of the south of Europe ; but having strayed into our wilds and plantations occasionally, it is now included in most books on British plants. A. ranunculoides, a doubtful native, found in one or two spots, but not really British, is well worth growing, being very beautiful, and form- ing tufts of golden yellow. The beautiful new and large A. angulosa I have seen growing almost as freely as Celandine among shrubs and in half-shady spots, and we all know how readily the old kinds grow on all garden soils of ordinary quality. There are about ten or twelve varieties of the common Hepatica (Anemone Hepa- tica) grown in British nurseries and gardens, and all the colours of the species should be represented in every collection of spring flowers. Many will doubtless remember with pleasure the prettily-buttoned white flowers of the Fair Maids of France (Ranunculus aconitifolius fl. pl.) and in a half-shady rich border it is a beautiful and first-class plant ; but I am disposed to think more of the double varieties of the British Ranun- culuses, because of their greater hardiness and vigour. Weed as is the common R. acris, its 30 The Wild Garden. double variety, with the perfectly formed and polished golden buttons, is a charming hardy plant, flowering profusely, and not of a very transient character; the flowers are even useful for cutting. Good also are R. repens fl. pl. and R. bulbosus fi. pl. R. montanus is a pretty little species, better suited for rockwork, stony ground, or a spot where it would be safe from injury ; it is very dwarf and neat, and the flowers comparatively large. Quite distinct from all these, and of chastest beauty when well grown, is R. amplexicaulis, with flowers of pure white, and simple leaves of a dark glaucous green and flowing graceful outline; a hardy and charming plant on almost any soil. It is, indeed, a beautiful and distinct plant, and generally speaking so rare, that had I not seen it selling in the Notting- ham market for a few pence per tuft (!) some months ago, I should not mention it here, for usually it is rare even in botanic gardens, and I was much surprised to see it selling like Musk- ‘Plant or Bachelor’s-buttons. There is, however, a handsome double variety of our fine wild Marsh-marigold sold rather plentifully in London during the spring months, and it, unlike the single one, is not so generally known or grown as it ought to be. Of the Globe Flowers (Trollius), Explanatory. 31 the best are T. Napellifolius, T. asiaticus, and the British T. europzeus. These are all rich in colour, fragrant, and striking in a remarkable degree. The Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis,) should be naturalized in every country seat in Britain—it is as easy to do so as to introduce the thistle. It may be placed quite under the branches of deci- duous trees, will come up and flower when they are as naked as stones, have its foliage developed before the leaves come on the trees, and be afterwards hidden from sight. Thus masses of this earliest flower may be grown without the slightest sacrifice of space, and only be noticed when bearing a bloom on every little stem. That fine old plant, the Christ- mas Rose, (Helleborus niger,) likes shade or partial shade better than full exposure, and should be used abundantly, giving it rather snug and warm posi- tions, so that its flowers may be encouraged to open well and fully. Any other kinds of which there was a surplus stock might also be used. And here I might incidentally suggest that every time the borders of hardy plants are dug over, the trimmings and parings of many garden ornaments will do for planting in the woods and wilds. Of the Monkshoods the less we say the better, perhaps. Some of them are handsome, but all of 32 The Wild Garden. them virulent poisons ; and, bearing in mind what damage has been done by them from time to time, they are better not used at all. Not so the Delphi- niums, which are amongst the most beautiful of all flowers. They are now to be had in such profuse variety that particular kinds need not be named, all being good. A “mixed” packet of seed from any seedsman would afford a number of fine plants. They embrace almost every shade of blue, from the rich dark tone of D. grandiflora to the charming cerulean tints of such as D. Belladonna; and being usually of a tall and strong type, will make way among long grasses and vigorous weeds, unlike many things for which we have to recom- mend an open space, or a wood with nothing but a carpet of moss under the trees. We have thus seen, from examples of three groups, what may be done in the way I propose. I might go through all the other orders in the same way, but as this is done more systematically further on, it is not needful here. I might go from glade to glade and bank to bank, and show how a different aspect of vegetation might be produced in each; but that will be suggested by the natural orders, by the lists of selections, and, better than all, by a knowledge of the plants themselves. One Explanatory. 33 of the most delightful phases of the subject is that of naturalizing alpine and rock plants on ruins and old walls: there are scores of kinds that not only thrive on such places, but are to be seen to greater advantage on them than in any other posi- tions; but as this is very fully dealt with in an illustrated chapter in my “Alpine Flowers,” I content myself in the present work with giving a carefully drawn up list of the best species that will succeed on ruins and old walls, By these means it is quite practicable to create aspects of vegetation along our wood and shrubbery walks, and in neglected places, superior to any seen in nature, because we may cull from the flora of every northern, temperate, and alpine region ; whereas in nature comparatively few plants exist wild in a restricted space, while the effect of the planting which I suggest need be in no sense inferior in any one spot to that of the sweetest wild of Nature’s own arranging, It must not be thought that my proposal can only be carried out in places where there is some extent of rough pleasure-ground, or some approxi- mation to what I call half-wild places. Un- doubtedly the finest effects may be obtained in these ; but excellent results may be obtained from D 34 The Wild Garden. the system in comparatively small villa-gardens, on the fringes of shrubberies, and marginal planta- tions, open spaces between shrubs, the surface of beds of Rhododendrons, etc. In a word, every shrubbery and plantation surface that is so need- lessly and relentlessly dug over by the gardener every winter, may be embellished in the way I propose, as well as wild places. As I have said in “ Alpine Flowers,” no practice is more general, or more in accordance with ancient custom, than that of digging shrubbery borders, and there is none in the whole course of gardening more profitless or worse. When winter is once come, almost every gardener, although animated with the best inten- tions, simply prepares to make war upon the roots of everything in his shrubbery border. The gene- rally accepted practice is to trim, and often to mutilate the shrubs, and to dig all over the surface that must be full of feeding roots. Delicate half- rooted shrubs are often disturbed; herbaceous plants, if at all delicate and not easily recognised, are destroyed; bulbs are often displaced and in- jured ; and a sparse depopulated aspect is given to the margins, while the only “improvement” that is effected by the process is the annual darkening of the surface by the upturned earth. Explanatory. 35 Illustrations of my meaning occur by miles in our London parks in winter. Walk through any of them at that season, and observe the borders round masses of shrubs, choice and otherwise. In- stead of finding the earth covered, or nearly covered, with vegetation close to the margin, and each individual developed into something like a respectable specimen of its kind, we find a spread of recently-dug ground, and the plants upon it with an air of having recently suffered from a whirlwind, or some calamity that necessitated the removal of mutilated branches. Rough-pruners precede the diggers, and bravely trim in the shrubs for them, so that nothing may be in the way; and then come the diggers, who sweep along from margin to back, plunging deeply round and about plants, shrubs, or trees. The first shower that occurs after this digging exposes a whole network of torn-up roots. There is no relief to the spec- tacle; the same thing occurs everywhere—in a London botanic garden as well as in our large West-end parks ; and year after year is the process repeated. While such is the case, it will be impossible to have an agreeable or interesting margin to a shrubbery ; albeit the importance of the edge, as D2 36 The Wild Garden. compared to the hidden parts, is pretty much as that of the face to the back of a mirror. Of course all the labour required to produce this happy result is worse than thrown away, as the shrubberies would do better if let alone, and merely surface- cleaned now and then; but by utilizing the power thus wasted, we might highly beautify the positions that now present so objectionable an aspect. If we resolve that no annual manuring or digging is to be permitted, nobody will grudge a thorough preparation at first. Then the planting should be so arranged as to defeat the digger. To graduate the vegetation from the taller subjects behind to the very margin of the grass is of much importance, and this could only be done thoroughly by the greater use of permanent evergreen and very dwarf subjects. Happily, there is quite enough of these to be had suitable for every soil. Light, moist, peaty, or sandy soils, where such things as the sweet-scented Daphne Cneorum would spread forth its dwarf cushions, would be somewhat more desirable than say, a stiff clay; but for every position suitable plants might be found. Look, for example, at what we could do with the dwarf-green Iberises, Helianthemums, Aubrietias, Arabises, Alyssums, dwarf shrubs, and little conifers Explanatory. 37 like the creeping Cedar (Juniperus squamata), and the Tamarix-leaved Juniper! All these are green, and would spread out into dense wide cushions, covering the margin, rising but little above the grass, and helping to cut off the formal line which usually divides margin and border. Behind them we might use very dwarf shrubs, deciduous or ever- green, in endless variety ; and of course the margin should be varied also. In one spot we might have a wide-spreading tuft of the prostrate Savin pushing its graceful ever- green branchlets out over the grass; in another the dwarf little Cotoneasters might be allowed to form the front rank, relieved in their turn by pegged- down Roses; and so on without end. Herbaceous plants, that die down in winter and leave the ground bare afterwards, should not be assigned any important position near the front. Evergreen Alpine plants and shrubs, as before remarked, are perfectly suitable here; but the true herbaceous type, and the larger bulbs, like Lilies, should be “stolen in” between spreading shrubs rather than allowed to monopolize the ground. By so placing them, we should not only secure a far more satis- factory general effect, but highly improve the aspect of the herbaceous plants themselves. Of 38 The Wild Garden. course, to carry out such planting properly, a little more time at first and a great deal more taste than are now employed would be required ; but what a difference in the result! In the kind of borders I advocate, nearly all the trouble would be over with the first planting, and labour and skill could be successively devoted to other parts of the grounds. All that the covered borders would require, would be an occasional weeding or thinning, &c., and perhaps in the case of the more select spots, a little top- dressing with fine soil. Here and there, between and amongst the plants, such things as Forget-me- nots and Violets, Snowdrops and Primroses, might be scattered about, so as to lend the borders a floral interest even at the dullest seasons; and thus we should be delivered from digging and dreariness, and see our ugly borders alive with exquisite plants. The chief rule should be—never show the naked earth: carpet or clothe it with dwarf subjects, and then allow the taller ones to rise in their own wild way through the turf or spray. It need hardly be said that this argument against the digging applies to two or three beds of shrubs, and places where the “shrubbery” is little larger than the dining-room, as much as to the large country seat, public park, or botanic garden. Explanatory. 39 It would require a long list to enumerate the many unattractive places that may be beautified by the adoption of this system of naturalization. Take for example a common ditch shaded with trees. There would be no difficulty in enumerating many plants that would thrive better in such a position, with a little clearing and preparation, than we have ever seen them do in any position they now occupy in gardens. It would in fact be a perfect paradise for such plants as Trillium grandiflorum and other inhabitants of dense woods. My friend Dr. Hud- son, of Dublin, has converted an old ditch of this kind bordering his place at Merrion into a very agreeable walk, by simply putting a foot or so of coal-ashes and lime-rubbish into it so as to form a dry walk; and the banks of this shady, narrow alley, he will convert into “ mixed borders” of the most charming kind, by selecting plants that love, and thrive in, shady sheltered spots, and by so arranging them that no two parts of the scene shall present the same aspect of vegetation. I will next enumerate, and indicate the best positions for, the plants suitable for the system, PART II. AN ENUMERATION OF HARDY EXOTIC PLANTS, SUITABLE FOR Naturalization in our Woods, Semi-wild Places, Shrubberies, etc., WITH THE NATIVE COUNTRY, GENERAL CHARACTER, HEIGHT, COLOUR, TIME OF FLOWERING, MODE OF PROPAGATING, AND THE POSITIONS MOST SUITABLE FOR EACH. HARDY EXOTIC PLANTS FOR NATURALIZATION. THE BUTTERCUP FAMILY. Hare-bell Virgin’s Bower. Clematis campanifiora. Native country: 8. Europe. Habit: a climber. Height : 6 to rofeet. Colour of flower: purplish. Zime of flower- ing: summer. Manner of propagation: by seed, as in all the kinds, to be sown as soon as gathered, division, or layers.— Suitable positions: copses, banks, old stumps, hedgerows, &c. in ordinary soil. American Traveller’s Joy. Clematis Viorna. North America. Climber ; 8 to ro feet ; purple ; summer and early autumn ; seed, division, or layers.—Thin low copses, open sunny banks, rootwork, hedgerows, etc. Vine-bower Clematis. Clematis Viticella. South Europe. Climber; 10 to 16 feet; blue or purple; summer and early autumn; seed or layers.—Fringes of woods, copses, hedgebanks ; through wild or semi-wild shrubby vegetation on high banks, tall old stumps, or high rootwork. Sweet-scented Virgin’s Bower. Clematis Hammula. Southern Europe. Climber; 10 to 30 feet; white; autumn ; seed or layers.—Excellent for almost every use to which a hardy climber may be put, and in the semi- 44 The Wild Garden. wild state for banks, stumps, chalk-pits, hedges, copses, and even for planting in masses in grassy places. Richer sheets of noble bloom are not to be seen in the open air in any northern clime than those produced by the new hybrid clematises raised by Jackman of Woking and others. They are capable of beautifying any position, and seem to conform to almost any mode of culture or training—pegged down, trained up on stakes, or nailed against walls; but there is certainly no spot which suits them so well as the face of a large rock, natural or artificial Planted in deep good soil, above and behind such an object, the shoots will fall over the face of the rock in vigorous matted tufts, and in due season become so densely covered with flowers as to resemble a truly imperial robe of purple. They may also be planted so as to fall over the side-walls of rustic bridges either over walks or streams, and may be allowed to run over the face of bare sunny banks, where they would produce a magnificent effect. The variety best known at present is Jackman’s (Clematis Fackmani) ; but there are many other kinds. Meadow Rues. Thalictrums. This large and well- marked family is of somewhat too coarse and weedy a nature for garden culture ; but, being possessed of a very vigorous habit, and being also distinct in aspect, it is precisely one of those that are suitable for planting here and there in the wildest and roughest parts of our planta- tions. Of the rather numerous kinds of these grown in our botanic gardens, the most ornamental are the plumy Meadow-rue and the fetid Meadow-rue: as these are capable of producing distinct and desirable effects, I will Flardy Exotic Plants for Naturalization. 45 speak of them separately. As regards all the other species likely to be met with in gardens, and including also any plants of the plumy Meadow-rue, they may be planted among any coarse herbaceous vegetation. For the most part they attain a height of three or four feet, and are as easily propagated by division as the common balm. Fetid Meadow Rue. TZhalctrum fetidum, Europe. Herbaceous perennial; 9 inches to one and a half feet high; brownish; summer; division or seed.—A plant not worthy of cultivation on account of its flowers ; but having very gracefully cut leaves, very like those of our own Lesser Meadow-rue—and resembling, when grown on established plants, those of the Stove Maiden-hair fern (Adiantum cuneatum), it deserves to be grown, as does also the Lesser Meadow-tue, for the beauty of its leaves. It is, like that plant, hardy enough to grow in almost any soil or position, but will be seen to greatest advantage on open spots or banks with a dwarf vegetation of late spring and early summer flowers. In such places tufts of it ought to look as well as plants of the Maiden- hair fern do among conservatory flowers. It is, however, only just to the British Thalictrum minus to say that it produces a very similar effect and quite as good, so that anybody possessing it need not seek our present subject. Plumy Meadow Rue. Thalictrum aquilegifolium. Middle and Southern Europe. Herbaceous perenniai ; 3 to 4 feet; whitish rose or purplish ; summer ; division. —Will grow in almost any soil or position, but prefers a somewhat humid spot. The variety with purplish instead of yellow stamens is a pretty one, and both are well suited for a position near wood walks, 46 The Wild Garden. Alpine Wind-Flower. Axemone alpina: Alps. Her- baceous perennial ; 4 to 20 inches ; white and purplish on the outside of the petals ; summer ; seed and division.— On grassy banks, in unmown parts of the pleasure-grounds or open spots in woods, in which it ought to attain as great perfection as it does in sub-alpine meadows. Apennine Wind-Flower. Anemone apennina. Europe. Tuber; 3 to 9 inches ; blue; spring ; division. —Rocks, stony places, in exposed positions, and also in bare shady or half-shady places, in groves, and by the side of avenues and wood walks. It may, in fact, be grown with success wherever the common wood-anemone thrives. Poppy Wind-Flower. Azemone Coronaria. Levant. Tuber ; 6 to 12 inches; striped; spring; seed and divi- sion.—Open sunny places, fringes of shrubberies, banks, etc., where there is a dwarf vegetation. Japanese Wind-Flower. Anemone japonica. Japan. Herbaceous perennial; 2 feet; reddish ; autumn; division. —wWoods, copses, brakes, amongst masses of Cotoneaster and other prostrate shrubs, margins of shrubberies, in fact in almost any position and soil. White Japanese Wind-flower. Anemone japonica var. Honorine Jobert. Garden variety. Herbaceous perennial; 2 feet ; white ; autumn ; division.—Similar positions to those for the preceding, than which it is even a finer plant. Crowfoot Wind-Flower. Anemone ranunculoides. Middle and Northern Europe. Tuber ; 6 inches ; yellow ; spring ; seeds or division—Does best in chalky or warm dry soils, in spots where there is a dwarf vegetation. Snowdrop Wind-Flower. Anemone sylvestris. Europe. Herbaceous perennial; 1 to 14 feet; white ‘ fTardy Exotic Plants for Naturalization. 47 spring; seeds or division. — Margins of shrubberies, copses, and by wood-walks associated occasionally with the Alpine Anemone, and the finer Crowfoots. Hepatica. Anemone Hepatica. Europe. Herbaceous perennial; 3 or 4 inches; various colours; spring; division.—A native of mountain woods, this thrives very well in bare places, in shady or open woods and shrubberies; also in rocky places, the chief care re- quired being to plant it where its beauties may be seen. Three-leaved Wind-Flower.