THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 359 



times rich in colour. Moreover, a few peaches, apricots, and 

 nectarines may be added, and in good seasons their fruits will ripen, 

 well, and in bad seasons they will be splendid when in flower, and 

 their leafage equal in beauty to that of most shrubbery trees all the 

 summer long. To vary the front lines we have the berberis, useful 

 for preserving ; the currant, a grand thing for ornament when grown 

 in the standard form, four or five feet high ; the gooseberry ; 

 the raspberry ; a7id there might be an edging of strawberries to 

 finish ofi' with. You will be saying that this, after all, is a fruit 

 garden. "Well, so it is ; but I am considering how this fruit-garden 

 can be made to do duty as shrnhhery in gardens where fruit is valued, 

 and where the owners are not wealthy enough to have orchard and 

 shrubbery too. You see it compels us to consider the case, not 

 alone as to the usefulness of certain fruits, but as to their oy7ia- 

 mental qualities, those said ornamental qualities being but little 

 or not at all thought of in the arrangement of an ordinary fruit- 

 garden. 



Let us begin, then, to plant a belt, and not a square. There 

 may be, say, a walli in front of the belt, and on the other side of the 

 ■walk a grass plot or lawn. The belt is to be shrubbery, and there 

 are available for it, in the way of trees, limes, poplars, willows, alders, 

 etc., etc. Now I propose that we plant, instead, standard apples, 

 pears, plums, cherries, one or two walnuts and mulberries; and, in 

 the event of this border being in a very warm and highly-favoured 

 part of Britain, a few standard sweet almonds. Should larger trees 

 be wanted for the background, the Devonshire Prolific chestnut 

 would occasionally afford a crop of eatable nuts, and in time to come 

 most valuable timber. 



For the bulk of the furniture, we must rely on bush and pyramid 

 fruit trees. If well managed, these are most beautiful and interest- 

 ing, the pears especially, and they produce enormous crops, con- 

 sidering the comparatively small extent of ground required for even 

 a large collection. I would mix a few evergreens, dwarf shrubs, and 

 clumps of hollyhocks with them, to preserve the shrubbery character, 

 and I would afford ample room to all to allow of a free circulation of 

 air, and admit abundance of light. The finishing of the front line 

 would require more taste than the general arrangement of the mid- 

 distance and background. A few Weigelias, scarlet-flowering E.ibe.s, 

 the golden-flowering Forsythia viridissima, Cotoneaster Simmonsii, 

 and any or all the liardy Berberis obtainable, would be suitable to 

 obtain a pleasing variety ; and with a few clumps of herbaceous 

 Pseonies, Irises, Phloxes, and Achilleas would secure both interest 

 and beauty. The useful part of the front line would, of course, 

 consist of standard currants, trained gooseberries of the goblet and 

 umbrella forms ; Berberis vulgaris, miniature apple, pear, cherry, 

 and plum trees ; and a few of the hardier varieties of grapes, trained 

 to stakes. In respect of the miniature trees last nauied, I will 

 remark that I have had excellent crops of fruit on trees of only two 

 and three feet in height, and such little things are such as would be 

 suitable. Of course, in time they will persist in growing large, but 

 that only fits them for removal a stage further back. 



