iSyi.] ADAPTATION AND KEEP OF GARDENS. 493 



and admiration ; but a smaller garden in the same high order is far 

 more fitted to delight the mind than the largest when deficient of 

 order and high keeping. And we do not know of any one more truly- 

 worthy of commiseration and sympathy than he who, with a naturally 

 orderly mind, is called upon to attempt the extraction of pleasure by 

 means of high keeping from any garden for which sufficient labour is 

 not allowed. But this is not all, for we are persuaded that horti- 

 culture in all its ramifications could be generally vastly improved by the 

 great majority of the present practitioners, if either some part of the 

 grounds were allowed to merge into the wild, or if means in pro- 

 portion were allowed to cultivate and keep it properly. 



Then there is another point which perhaps deserves to be approached 

 with more delicacy. It is, the attempts to crowd into gardens, how- 

 ever small, a little of everything that can be thought of, without con- 

 sideration of adaptability of situation, soil, and climate. If the 

 capabilities of a garden — as to what should be the leading features of 

 horticulture which most befits its character, and which could be 

 attempted with good hope of success — were more fully considered, it 

 would be vastly better for horticulture generally than the introduction 

 of so many features indiscriminately, where many of them can never 

 be more than the veriest abortions. There are few reforms that 

 would tend so much to advance gardening to a higher standard, as 

 that individual places should be made celebrated for those particular 

 branches of cultivation and decoration for which their peculiar 

 characteristics render them well adapted. That certain places are 

 superbly suited for one thing, while these sam.e places afford the 

 worst possible foundation for successful results in some other thing, is 

 a self-evident fact. It might be asked, what it is that has so very 

 much tended to superlative culture of one particular class or family 

 of plants or trees, and our answer is not far to seek. It is, that one 

 cultivator has thrown the power of his resources, and turned the 

 peculiarities of situation, soil, and climate into some particular branch 

 of gardening, and has in consequence done vastly more towards its 

 development and progress than if a heterogeneous multitude of subjects, 

 for few of which the place might be suitable, had divided his attention 

 and consumed his resources. This refers with equal force to superior 

 culture and to improved varieties. We owe much to those w^ho have 

 taken to specialties for which their situations and predilections made 

 them a name. It may not be out of place to recommend those who 

 are about to lay out and plant for themselves gardens, in the first 

 place to employ the best talent they can procure. It will be their 

 cheapest and most satisfactory course in the end. To all such, a man 

 who can give sound advice as to the capabilities of a garden, and direct 



