2 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



cliious kinds look more barren by the contrast, and the evergreens are 

 almost lost in what may, in severe language, be described as a Avilderness 

 of bare poles. It is rather fortunate that science gives a rule that taste 

 may accept as safe, provided it be carried out with judgment, and it is tbat 

 plants of the same natural families, and even of the same genera, generally 

 group together better for the production of bold and decided effects, than 

 those that have very remote relationships. "What can be better in its way 

 than a clump of rhododendrons, a compartment of moutans, a belt of 

 aucubas, or a terrace line of deodara cedars ? In the anxiety to possess a 

 great variety of the most beautiful trees and slirubs, persons who are not 

 in the habit of employing professional planters are apt to get together 

 rare mixtures of heterogeneous elements, and after all their expense and 

 trouble, they are occasionally startled at the rich appearance of some well- 

 kept garden, where none but the commonest trees and shrubs are to be 

 foimd. Eroad masses of contrasted colour give the eye a sense of satisfac- 

 ■tion — it has at last found something on Avhich it can gaze with a sense of 

 repose. In small gardens it is no easy matter to satisfy the demands of a 

 fastidious taste. Planting is like public speaking : in a great room, and 

 with a large audience, it is easy and agreeable work ; in a small room, with 

 an audience of three or more, it needs the experience of half a life- time 

 to make a speech at all. So in planting a small piece of ground; it is 

 no easy matter to give it a distinctness of character, and every mistake 

 stares out in bold reproach, for the simple reason that small objects invite 

 close inspection. We were much pleased with a garden scene which we 

 visited during the past summer, not because there was anything novel, or 

 grand, or jDeculiar aboiit it, but because the best possible effect of breadth 

 had been attained by the use of the simplest and cheapest elements. We 

 sketched it in order to be able to place it before our readers during the 

 planting season, as an example of good taste making the best of inex- 

 pensive materials. As shown in the engraving, we have the lawn as seen 

 from the drawing-room windows. The belts of shrubs consist chiefly of 

 box, aucuba, Portugal laurel, and Pliillyrca in roxinded masses, forming 

 two sides of a bow towards the path, which is spanned by an arch of thorn. 

 The walk opens into a broad space of gravel, in the centre of which is a 

 fountain, and from thence there is a Avalk with a few arches for climbers, 

 and on either side of it ribbon lines for summer bedders. To give any 

 ininute description would be to waste space, because, in truth, the story 

 would amount to nothing. The picture has breadth, the eye is neither 

 cramped nor bewildered, but enjoys a sense of case in the subdued har- 

 monies of a few simple outlines and slightly-varied shades of colour. We 

 must add, however, that this is a suburban garden of small size, near 

 enough to London for its j)ossessor to hear the striking of St. Paul's clock, 

 in a district where good gardening is the rule rather than the exception, 

 but where among the gardens similarly circumstanced, as to extent and 

 position, there is not one which more thoroughlj^ conveys the idea of a 

 refined and gentlemanly taste. 



But we must not go back to the dark ages in making selections for 

 scenic effect. Some of the recent introductions of hardy shrubs place us 

 in a position almost to defy the viintcr, as regards keeping up a display of 

 colour. The splendid foliage of the variegated rhododendron, the varie- 

 gated holly, and the variegated alaternus, have their match in some of 

 the plants of recent introduction. The beautiful weeping holly (I. var. 



