locality. Others I myself gathered from more distant places, whilst one or two species came to me in other ways. Those species which I have omitted I did not grow in my garden-I mean in my open garden-in which I included only those about whose success I had no doubt. I think all those who may wish to follow my example will find abundant pleasure in the pastime, and quite enough to occupy their available leisure, if they are content to grow only those ferns which I have mentioned.

VIII.

FLOWERY GRASS BANKS.

NATURE offers, to the tired wanderer across summer meadows or forest glades, no more luxurious couch than that of a grassy bank bestrewn with flowers. If there are moments in life during which mere existence is a pleasure, they are surely those when the holiday-maker, seeking rest and relaxation of mind and body, after long-continued and laborious work, finds himself in the country, and absolutely free from any obligation of work-free to indulge in the luxury of doing nothing. How delicious at noontide to stretch one's listless length' upon the grassy face of an open meadow, and look up into the far heights of the sky at the masses of fleecy white cloud which may be floating under the eye of the sun, descrying the tiny black specks, which reveal the position of the delicious songsters, whose fresh, cheerful notes are being rained down upon the earth: how delightful to recline upon the flowery margin of a brook, and, whilst one's cheeks are softly fanned by the

gentle air set in motion by the rapid course of the current, to watch the little eddies of the stream where the water weeds are gracefully swaying to and fro: how delightful, too, whilst half reclining upon sweet fresh Grass, to lean upon one's elbow and look upon the floral wealth immediately contiguous-upon the golden Buttercups, the Daisy stars, and the delicate blush of the Cuckoo Flower-to breathe the pure breath of the green blades, and to listen to the mellow voice of the cuckoo !

I had often thought, when looking upon such scenes, how delightful it would be to bring into one's garden a bit of open field or genuine forest glade—to have, not a prim 'lawn' or close-shaven piece of turf,' from which conventional custom excludes every plant but Grass, but the real thing. To accomplish my desire and include in my garden 'glade' all the flowers which I wished to be there, I knew I should have to do to such an extemporised glade what artists do to their pictures when they wish to present them on a smaller scale-I should have to reduce' it. I must give less proportionate space to Grass, and more to other flowering plants, so as to have the variety I desired; and, just as in many a forest glade one may find several species of Grass and a great number of flowers, and in different forest glades one may find still greater variety, so I

determined to collect them in one of a moderate sizeto photograph, so to speak, the larger scenes, so as to represent their salient features in my smaller scene.

The mere idea of attempting the introduction of so delightful a feature gave rise in my mind to feelings akin to enthusiasm. I cannot adequately express the pleasure I experienced in endeavouring to fulfil my intention; and that my reader may apprehend the enjoyment which the pastime actually afforded me, and the exact method which I adopted in the carrying out of my plan, I must make it clear how I proceeded. I had now completed what I may call—or at any rate what I always liked to consider as my natural outworks. Four walls of rock that hid my garden walls. from view shut me in from the outer world. In the enclosure—a wide and spacious area-there were only, as yet, my garden stream, my central pool, and the little marshy tract near where the stream disappeared under the rocks and finally took its departure. The stream I had caused to make its way along a meandering though somewhat central course; and some of the plants I grew along my stream-side, by the margin of the pool and on the marshy borders, I have already mentioned. At this period, however, in the history of my garden, little but a desert of gravel lay on each side between the stream and the rocky borders of

my ground. But I determined to carpet this desert with Grass and wild flowers, beginning at the streammargins and carrying the green garment, on each side, towards the rocky boundaries. From the watermargin it was my wish that the grassy sward should not, in its course outwards, uniformly preserve a dead level, but should gently rise over the greater part of its area and form a series of grassy slopes-in places rising to a height of four or five feet with a rapid descent on the opposite side (towards the rockeries), but in other places preserving a level course, in such a manner that, at irregular intervals, there should be breaches in the continuity of the mounds or grass banks. It will be seen that the innermost spaces of my garden-those between the stream-sides and the crests of the grassy banks-formed a kind of dell, with a stream of water winding through its bottom. Upon the surface of this garden dell I laid the foundations of forest clumps of shrubbery by planting roots of Hawthorn, Gorse, Briar, Bramble, and Honeysuckle, sufficiently close to each other to enable them, as they grew, to mingle their twigs and foliage. Of these, however, I shall have more to say by-and-by. I had, of course, to use imported soil in large quantity for the formation of the ground plan' of my raised banks; and I commenced by having the earth placed in the proper

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