260 THE FLORIST. 



FLOWER-GARDENING. No. I. 



In a work entitled Spectacle de la Nature, the eighth edition of the 

 English translation of which, "illustrated with copper-plates," was 

 published in 1757, there is a number of plates of " Parterres," several 

 of which, for intricate and appropriate design, would put to blush 

 many of our modern innovations. We have the " Parterre of Em- 

 broidery," so elaborate, and yet so pretty, that to plant it with 

 flowers we should imagine would mar the effect entirely; and we 

 fancy we can see the wry face a gardener of the present day would 

 pull, if told to provide plants to fill such a garden. Indeed, the plans 

 fully realise an Hybernicism frequently expressed of geometrical 

 flower-gardens, that they never look so " well filled as when quite 

 empty," and neatly finished off by a tasty workman. Then we have 

 a "parterre intermixed with embroidery and turf," and adjoining 

 it a "parterre after the English manner;" a good, substantial, solid- 

 looking thing, which a friend of mine, who had resided sufficiently 

 long in France to imbibe French prejudices, pronounced, when he 

 saw it, to be "purely English." 



Now while we willingly admit, in fact it cannot be denied, that 

 these embroidered gardens, when planted with dwarf Box, and the 

 beds and walks filled with various-coloured soils and gravel, and 

 very trimly kept, have a very neat appearance. Yet we must confess 

 our own prejudice, in a gardening-point of view, is for a good solid 

 bed and plenty of breadth of walk. 



Time was when gardens, flower-gardens at least, were more 

 admired for their form than for the plants or flowers which they 

 contained ; for to give a well-known garden as an illustration, we 

 first extirpated the tall, gawky, rugged herbaceous plants from the 

 flower-garden of the Duke of Devonshire at Chiswick House. That 

 is now nearly twenty years ago ; and then those narrow beds, which 

 thousands have annually admired of late years, filled with Verbenas, 

 Calceolarias, Petunias, &c, then contained a goodly array of Achil- 

 leas, Asters, Pseonies, and similar coarse-growing things, some of 

 them six or seven feet high, and which flowered in huge bushes, and 

 then were a bundle of rubbish the remainder of the season. There 

 the now all-prevalent " grouping system" was just struggling into 

 existence, and its advocates were looked upon as " not a little daft," 

 by their brethren of the old school, for introducing a plan which 

 never could be carried out, except in a " wee bit garden," and which 

 even then must entail "no end of work" on those who undertook to 

 illustrate its principle. We must confess that w r hen the list of plants 

 for the garden was drawn out, and the number necessary for each 

 bed attached, the " tottle of the whole" presented, for those days, a 

 rather formidable array of figures ; but the attempt was made, and 

 with yearly improvements, the result is now annually exemplified, 

 through the kindness of the noble proprietor, to thousands who attend 

 the Chiswick July fete. 



