Commercial firms are giving both negative and positive help. Some
of course, are sensitive to any interference with the freedom of advertisement. There are goods, it seems, for which hoardings in villages are necessary for the coping of the system ; but even the more recalcitrant theoretically prefer what is beautiful before what is ugly. A lead has been given, on the more negative side, by Shell-Mex and on the positive side by Suttons and Prichards. These last have given seeds for roadside use ; and some of the beds of annuals cloaking the petrol stations have a definite splendour of their own, if sometimes the contrast with the paint of the pumps is, to say the least, crude. How many motorists have taken away a vivid memory of the Shirley poppies and cornflowers along the roadside just before entering Headington on the confines of Oxford? Incidentally this roadside garden is an example of the new popularity of beds of mixed annuals. The fashion has spread to the Continent ; and grows strong in France. The history of it is interesting. A seed firm gave packets of mixed annuals to the Grave Commission for use in the War cemeteries ; and they so flourished, and so pleased the many visitors that they repeated the designs in their own gardens.
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