AUGUST. 173 



accomplished with a httle time and application. Why not study- 

 minutely the position of the colour?, &c., in a houquet which 

 is perfectly satisfactory to the taste, and by this aid determine upon 

 the position and space for the various colours, and note them upon 

 a rough sketch of the bed ? Having done this, the next thing 

 should be to decide upon the plants to be used, having a careful eye 

 to their height; and should any difhculty arise in this part of the 

 work, from the arrangement of the bouquet having placed colours in 

 such a position as to render it difficult to find plants of the colour, 

 and suitable as to height, this must be obviated by a careful rear- 

 rangement of the copy, in which such difficulties must be taken into 

 account and provided against, and this will be easily effected after 

 a few trials. I do not conceive it necessary, nor do I think that it is 

 possible, to give minute directions for the placing of the colours and 

 the plants to be used. There are few persons so destitute of a 

 sense of the beautiful as to be unable to accomplish this so as to 

 suit their own circumstances, provided they will only set about the 

 work in a methodical way; and after having suggested a bouquet 

 as the copy, I need hardly say that I perfectly detest all specimens of 

 flower- gardening, where bed A is planted with scarlet, B with 

 white, C with 3'ellow, and so on through all the gradations of colour 

 which can be found among plants, capable of either thriving or lin- 

 gering out a miserable existence in such a situation ; and I confess 

 that I have never been able to perceive any meaning in the term 

 *' complimentary colours," when applied to such patching, except 

 that I have understood the writers using such a phrase to mean by it 

 " contrasting patches of colour." I heartily wish all such arrange- 

 ments a comfortable passage to China; for although they may be just 

 tolerable in highly architectural situations, they are very ill- adapted 

 for most places in which we meet them. I would, however, advise 

 the amateur not to be ambitious to display a great variety of plants 

 in his flower- clump, but rather to use such only as can be propa- 

 gated and wintered with his means. 



Having once determined upon the colours for the spaces, and the 

 plants which are to furnish the colours, it will be easy to calculate 

 how many of each will be wanted, and allowing for deaths, &c., 

 the necessary number of each to be propagated, thus avoiding the 

 unnecessary waste of space which often occurs from harbouring too 

 manv of one variety, and the disappointment frequently experienced 

 at planting-out time, when it is found that, from the want of previous 

 arrangement, the clumps cannot be furnished as desired. It would 

 extend this article to an unreasonable length to name all the plants 

 which are suitable for the amateur, and give such directions for their 

 propagation and winter management as would suit the tyro. Ver- 

 benas, scarlet Geraniums, Lobelias, yellow Calceolarias, blue and 

 scarlet Salvia and Petunias, are perhaps the best of half-hardy plants; 

 and as these are all easily propagated and wintered, a sufficient stock 

 of them should be provided ; and now that glass is so cheap, the little 

 necessary expense need hardly prevent any amateur from furnishing 

 a suitable winter habitation for them. An outlay of from three to 



