THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 117 



and vigour. The cultivator may take his choice of various systems 

 of management. Old plants left to grow as they please — if not 

 starved outright— will be nearly always in bloom ; but they will bloom 

 more densely and beautifully if subjected to a regular course of 

 pruning and potting. As soon as the flowering is over in spring, 

 cut back moderately or severely according as you wish for large or 

 smill plants; merely shortening the points of all the shoots will 

 suffice if the plants are not threatening to outgrow the space allotted 

 to them. As soon as the fresh growth is breaking freely, turn them out 

 of their pots, remove the greater part of the soil from their roots, and 

 repot in the same size pots or one size larger, shortening the roots very 

 slightly. If the roots are severely injured the plants will never recover. 



WATER SCENES. 



At page 260 of last year's volume, an attempt was made to convey 

 to our amiable and affable correspondent " Jemima," some useful infor- 

 mation on the formation of water scenes. We doubtless said sufficient 

 then to enable Jemima to sketch out for herself a design, and deter- 

 mine for herself the position and nature of the intended consecration of 

 a site to the nymphs and naiads. We are gracefully reminded by her, 

 in a note which diffuses through our sanctum sweeter odours than are 

 wafted in through the open windows from the lilac and hawthorn 

 blossoms, that though we had said enough to enable her to direct the 

 gardener, who had directed the labourers, who by this time have dug 

 a hole and filled up the stuff to form banks and braes, still the subject 

 is not yet exhausted ; and it may be supposed that the matters that 

 so much interest Jemima, may at the same time interest other readers. 

 I think I may venture to say that water is rarely used to 

 such an extent as it might be, and should be, in English gardens. 

 Frequently the abundant supplies of water on an estate are 

 looked upon as a calamity ; the owner frets himself to find outlets, 

 the legislature comes to the rescue with a drainage act ; and 

 oftentimes when the drainage has been effectually diverted away 

 from the place, it is discovered that it might have been put to better use 

 than to swell the woodland rivulets and add to the volume of a stream 

 which contributes to the wealth of lands miles away by means of 

 many such injudicious contributions. I have in my mind now a 

 property which I was engaged to lay out, and where I was per- 

 mitted to indulge my taste freely in forming a beautiful scene. 

 While I was scheming to carry water away from the land, and 

 carrying out great drainage works for that purpose, the engi- 

 neers were at work on the highest part of the ground boring 

 an artesian well. Every one to his trade, the landscapist must 

 drain, drain, the engineer must bore, bore ; one is getting rid 

 of the very element the other seeks, and the proprietor who pays 

 for the work simply occupies the position of a means of separation be- 

 tween agents that ought to work together, and according to one plan, 

 from the first. It is true that land needing drainage must be drained ; 

 it is true that water stagnating in the soil is like so much poison; but 



