THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 259 



Should the " plunging system " ever come to be generally adopted, 

 we shall see thus much of the space now appropriated to flowers con- 

 tracted, and the display will be more brilliant, more constant, and 

 more various than now. There will be fewer beds, but they will 

 never be bare ; and there will be change on change the whole year 

 round, in place of the intermittent colouring which the rage for bed- 

 ding has so much increased. 



Another failure common to small gardens, is the want of features 

 of special interest. In great gardens we find bits of old castles or 

 monasteries, noble rockeries, fountains, patriarchal trees, heronries, 

 and other objects that aflbrd entertainment for the mind ; but small 

 gardens do not often present us with things that we can contem- 

 plate again and again without weariness. A rockery is especially 

 valuable, for this reason — that it never satiates as an excess of 

 flowers do. Glass, much or little, according to means and space, 

 repays its cost again and again, if, in any degree, put to a good 

 purpose. If there is but one good Hamburgh vine in a glass 

 verandah or little lean-to, it is a source of never-flagging pleasure. 

 We see its buds swell in spring ; we watch for the blossoms ; in due 

 time we see the little berries, and all the summer long the shadow of 

 the rich leafage is delightful ; and, at last, the jet-black fruit adorns 

 the table, and we eat the wages of our care and watching. It matters 

 not what purpose glass is appropriated to, whether to mere bedding- 

 plants, or for orchard-house fruits, or for a mixed collection of flower 

 plants ; glass, more or less, is always wanted in a garden, to afl'ord a 

 feature of special interest. So, again, in the disposition of trees, 

 flower-beds, and borders, interesting features may be secured. We 

 could now point to a small garden where the approach is rich with 

 evergreens and flowers. Beyond the house, on the other side, a 

 great raised circle, planted with rhododendrons, and these edged 

 with cotoneasters, deutzias, and a ring of ivy to finish ofl"; beyond 

 that, grass turf and trees ; and the only flowers to be seen are in 

 rustic baskets ; further on, a rockery, making a complete break, and 

 interrupting the view further down ; and beyond the rockery, two 

 compartments of roses, and beyond these, plant-houses ; and in this 

 garden, which is within the hearing of Bow bells, London, are not 

 only many distinct features, but individual objects of interest sufli- 

 cient to occupy any one mind for a lifetime. 



We are not proposing plans and schemes, and, therefore, 

 neither advocate orchard-houses, rockeries, nor rhododendron-beds, 

 nor anything at all in particular ; but we merely direct attention to 

 the necessity of attractive and interesting objects in a garden, that 

 its possessors, and their friends, may find in it an unfailing source of 

 entertainment, with, perhaps, a very large amount of valuable 

 instruction. 



Yet one more point. A common failing in small gardens (and, 

 indeed, in large ones too) is, that many things, easy to do, are badly 

 done. Take for example roses. How often do we see starving 

 standards disfiguring what would be, without them, a nice lawn. 

 They are, perhaps, planted in the turf, and cannot thrive because the 

 soil around their roots is as hard as a pavement, and by reason of 



