Page:The Wild Garden William Robinson.djvu/26

 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 ceaselessly 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 semiwild 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 thp best hardy exotics and establishing them with the best of our own wild