280 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



To greenwood shades, where silent birth 



Is given to buds that perfume earth ; 



To waving groves aud sunny fields, 



"Where Nature still fresh beauty yields ; 



To watch the early morning gleams. 



And hear the sound of dashing streams ; 



As down the craggy clifi" so tall, 



They fearless leap the cascade wall ; 



To gaze upon the silver sheen, 



"Where floating islands ever green 



Lie sofdy on the rolling tide, 



Which sweeps along so deep and wide ; 



To find in every flower and leaf 



An antidote to care and grief; 



To hear in every morning breeze, 



And in the midnight sound of trees, 



A cheering voice to teach the way 



To gain each morn a happier day : 



Still whispering Hope, and Joy, and Rest, 



To soothe the soul, and make it blest ; 



And in the heart's deep crystal tide. 



The scars and stings of Grief to hide ; 



Or when the moon is marching through 



The midnight arch so round and blue, 



To rove upon the soft green sod, 



And view the starry bests of God ! 



And while our souls seem borne away, 



To feel ourselves as grand as they, 



To seek the joy of worlds above. 



And grow in warmth of Praise and Love. 



DESIGNS FOR SELECT BEDS OF HARDY PLANTS. 



^fpffS AVING so often spoken in praise of the finer hardy plants, and advocated 

 Ia S-^ \- their being more extensively used, we now proceed to point out how 

 f§ P^^ I'; they may be arranged with the best result. Never within the history 

 S&^^£*y' of JBritish gardening have they been well planted out. "We have either 

 an ugly mixed border or nothing at all. This article is written to 

 explain how the finer hardy plants may be arrangf d in a satisfactory way, and one, 

 moreover, which will be a source of lasting beauty, without any annual trouble, 

 such as is given by the tender bedding plants. 



First, then, fcr a noble circular bed in an isolated place, say on some little glade 

 of grass where there is a recess in a shrubbery, where you, perhaps, never thought 

 of putting anything. Have a bed thoroughly well prepared in the first instance, 

 say 8ft., 10ft., or 12ft. wide, according to the size of your place, or the nook in 

 which you plant. What we mean by well prepared is, that the soil should be 

 rich, free, well drained, and 3ft. deep, if possible. As one preparation is all 

 that we require, no sensible person will begrudge the labour necessary in the 

 first instance. Care should be taken that the far-searching roots of trees do not 

 get to the soil of the bed, and rob the plants of their nutriment. In a word, 

 though the bed will be the better for being associated with handsome shrubs 

 and trees, it must never be so placed as to become a mere trough of rich food 

 for trees with voracious appetites. As the kind cf arrangements we are about to 

 recommend give no trouble after the first planting, they should get the best attention, 

 at first, and then they are finished for years. It is a most unsatisfactory, and 

 to seme extent contemptible, mode of gardening, that of continually "muddling" 

 over the same ground, spring after spring and autumn after autumn, and we con- 

 tinually labour in the hope of giving it a death-thrust some day. Doubtless, it is 



