74 THE FLORIST. 



inspiration ; and that, with her precepts to guide them, they cannot go 

 wrong. There is, doubtless, a large grain of truth is the bushel of 

 chair which usually hides it; but were it not sacrilege to parody a well- 

 known exclamation, we might say with much truth, "0, Nature! 

 what monstrosities have men committed in thy name." 



But we must descend. Can anything be more tediously assigned 

 than the ordinary shrubberies in a garden, or more opposite to what 

 we are persuaded to believe they represent — 



"Nature to advantage dressed." 



A natural shrubbery has breadth, massiveness, and repose ; its prime 

 elements are few, but the effect is an harmonious whole. An artificial 

 one, on the contrary, is in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred a 

 mixture of heterogeneous and discordant parts — variety run wild — 

 breadth, massiveness, and repose murdered. 



It will be understood that I am not in any way alluding to collections 

 of shrubs and trees viewed simply as collections, but to the main or 

 principal features of a garden to which other matters must be subser- 

 vient. 



Instead of distributing the same kinds of plants throughout the 

 garden, why not concentrate particular kinds in given positions, varying 

 them as regards soil, situation, or aspect, or in accordance with any 

 local circumstances that may present themselves, so that, in making 

 a circuit of such a garden, some new feature may be constantly 

 presented. In some parts, particular kinds may be grouped in con- 

 siderable masses, while others may be more or less detached, yet still 

 preserving a massiveness and breadth of effect. Here Hollies may 

 prevail ; there Arbutus ; in another, Phillyreas ; in a fourth, Rhodo- 

 dendrons ; and so on. Deciduous plants will, of course, be employed to 

 a considerable extent, but it will be found the better mode, whenever 

 practicable, to confine the undergrowths in the principal shrubberies to 

 evergreens, using a preponderance of deciduous things to break and vary 

 the sky outline. 



In common with every commendable garden practice, this grouping 

 system has been in some degree adopted in the irregular parts of the 

 grounds of the Crystal Palace. The effect is patent to everybody with 

 time and a shilling to spend. 



But there is one other circumstance so utterly destructive of all 

 breadth and repose in a shrubbery, that these observations, incomplete 

 as they ai - e, would be still more so if I did not venture on a few 

 condemnatory remarks thereon. I allude to the harsh band of bare 

 earth which is so studiously preserved around and in front of shrubberies 

 in general. It is much to be regretted that gardeners usually cannot 

 or will not see that a garden is made for something more than to " bed 

 out " flowers in. They will persist in sacrificing everything to this one 

 feature. As a body, they cannot imagine a garden in which the fronts 

 of the shrubberies are not ornamented (?) with gimcracks in the way of 

 Petunias, Geraniums, Fuchsias, and weedy annuals. And to carry out 

 this, their pet desideratum, the edging iron and the rake year after 

 year destroy or neutralise those harmonious features which Nature, if 



