The guiding aim in this book has been the selection of really suitable subjects, and the rejection of many that have been recommended and tried for this purpose. This point is more important than at first sight would appear, for in most of the literature hitherto devoted to the subject plants entirely unsuitable are named. Thus we find such things as Alnus glandulosa aurea and Ulmus campestris aurea (a form of the common elm) enumerated among subtropical plants by one author. Manifestly if these are admissible almost every species of plant is equally so. These belong to a class of variegated hardy subjects that have been in our gardens for ages, and have nothing whatever to do with subtropical gardening. Two other classes have also purposely been omitted: very tender stove-plants, many of which have been tried in vain in the Paris and London Parks, and such things as Echeveria secunda, which though belonging to a type frequently enumerated among subtropical plants, are, more properly, subjects of the bedding class. But if I have excluded many that I know to be unsuitable, every type of the vegetation of northern and temperate countries has been searched for valuable kinds; and as no tropical or subtropical subject that is really effective has been omitted, the result is the most complete selection that is possible from the plants now in cultivation.
No pains have been spared to show by the aid of illustrations the beauty of form displayed by the various types of plants herein enumerated. For some of the illustrations I have to thank MM. Vilmorin and Andrieux, the well-known Parisian firm; for others, the proprietors of the ‘Field;’ while the rest are from the graceful pencil of Mr. Alfred Dawson, and engraved by Mr. Whymper and Mr. W. Hooper. I felt that engravings would be of more than their usual value in this book, inasmuch as they place the best attainable result before the reader’s eye, thus enabling him to arrange his materials more efficiently. A small portion of the matter of this book originally appeared in my book on the gardens of Paris, in which it will not again be printed. For the extensive list of the varieties of Canna I am indebted to M. Chatè’s “Le Canna.” Most of the subjects have been described from personal knowledge of them, both in London and Paris gardens.
W. R.
April 3, 1871.
CONTENTS.
| [PART I.] | |
|---|---|
| PAGE | |
| INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS | [1] |
| [PART II.] | |
| DESCRIPTION, ARRANGEMENT, CULTURE, ETC., OFSUITABLE SPECIES, HARDY AND TENDER, ALPHABETICALLYARRANGED | [43] |
| [PART III.] | |
| SELECTIONS OF PLANTS FOR VARIOUS PURPOSES | [221] |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Separate plates to face the pages given.