210 THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. [September, 



been placed, and a few seeds of Mignonette thrown in for perfume, have covered 

 the ground, and finished the semicircles — no, not yet, for they are all edged with a 

 broad band of the Cerastium, and nothing could prove more airy and charming 

 than this 'snow in summer,' enwreathing the bottoms of sombre yews, or climb- 

 ing up among tender masses of green rose leaves, or making the flowers blush a 

 deeper crimson, as it twines its tiny anns around them in a close embrace. Thf 

 snowy white projections are now linked together by a narrow band of Viola 

 cornuta, carried along the base of the wall to the pillars, while opposite the 

 latter, the two ends of the Vfolets are tied together in a true lovers' knot, with a 

 projecting bow of the Golden Feather. And thus the bottom of the wall is 

 fringed with beauty. 



There is also another form of embellishment introduced between the two lines of 

 trees. At a distance of 11 ft. from the wall, opposite every vase-capped pillar, 

 the centre of a row of circles is placed. These circles are swept with a radius 

 of 4^- ft., are considerably raised in the middle, and are each planted with one 

 variety of plant, generally all Pelargoniums. The intention alike of the form and 

 mode of planting, though the weather has not always permitted of its being 

 realized, is to make each bed a uniform posy, to resemble one huge, flat, cone- 

 shaped plant. 



Beginning at the wall, then, we have, first, the lace fringe at its base ; next, the 

 hollyhocks ; 3rd, the spiral yews and roses alternating prettily ; 4th, the cir- 

 cular flower-beds ; 5th, the row of Irish yews ; Gth, the straight greensward ; 7th, 

 the golden yews ; and finally, the flower beds. A series of ups and downs, pro- 

 bably my readers will say ; but all united by the one commanding purpose 

 of bringing solid heavy masses of masonry to glide through a series of sightly 

 graduating expedients, until the wall and the garden meet, to the mutual advantage 

 of both, and the improvement of each. 



Harchoiclce House. D. T. Fish, F.R.H.S. 



FIG-CULTURE IN FRANCE. 



jf^IGS and Fig-culture seem to be exciting more attention in this country than 

 formerly, and it is well that they do so, for no fruit can be more whole- 

 some or delicious than these, when fully grown and well ripened. The pot 

 cultivation of the Fig tree, as practised so successfully at Chiswick, has 

 already occupied some space in the Florist and Pomologist. and we now pro- 

 pose to glean from Mr. Eobinson's recent book* some particulars of Fig-culture 

 as carried on in France, according to the system of M. Dubreuil. 



In our own southern counties, e.g., at Arundel, Shoreham, and the Isle of 



* Tlie Parks, Gardens, and Promenades of Paris, Described and Considered in Relation to the Wants of Our Own 

 Cities, and of Public and Private Gardens. By W. Robinson, F.L.S. With upwards of 400 Illustrations. London : 

 Murray. A comprehensive and highly suggestive account of French Gardening, especially in respect to those 

 features which bear most intimately on our own practice. It should occupy a place in every garden library. 



