THOUGHTS ON THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



171 



a greater or less degree of torpidity, and 

 some require it not at all — so in plants, the 

 length and degree will vary much in dif- 

 ferent species, and according to their state 

 of artificial cultivation. As a general rule, 

 young gardeners must take heed not pre- 

 maturely to force the juices into action in 

 spring, nor to keep them too lively in win- 

 ter, unless they are well prepared with 

 good and sufficient protection till all the 

 frosts are over. The practical effect of 

 these observations will be, that many plants 

 which have hitherto only been cultivated 

 by those who have had flues and green- 

 houses at their command, will now be 

 grown in as great or greater perfection by 

 those who can afford them a dry, though 

 not a warm shelter. One instance may 

 serve as an example : the scarlet geranium, 

 one of the greatest treasures of our par- 

 terres, if taken up from the ground in au- 

 tumn, after the wood is thoroughly ripened, 

 and hung up in a dry room, without any 

 soil attaching to it, will be found ready, 

 the next spring, to start in a new life of 

 vigor and beauty. 



One characteristic of our native plants 

 we must mention, that if we miss in them 

 something of the gorgeousness and lustre 

 of more tropical flowers, we are more than 

 compensated by the delicacy and variety of 

 their perfume ; and just as our woods, vo- 

 cal with the nightingale, the blackbird, and 

 the thrush, can well spare the gaudy fea- 

 thers of the macaw, so can we resign the 

 oncidiums, the cactuses, and the ipomaeas 

 of the tropics, for the delicious fragrance of 

 our wild banks of violets, our lilies-of- 

 the-valley, and our woodbine, or even for 

 the passing whiff of a hawthorn bush, 

 a clover or bean field, or a gorse-com- 

 mon. 



With such hedgerow flowers within his 

 reach, and in so favorable a climate, it is 

 not to be wondered that the garden of the 

 English cottager has been remarked among 

 our national distinctions. These may be 

 6aid to form the foreground of that peculiar 

 English scenery, which is filled up by our 

 hedge-rows and our parks. The ingenious 

 authoress of 'Leila in England,'* makes 



* This is a pleating continuation of her ' Leila, or the 

 Island. 1 All MlM Tytler's books (or children are worthy of 

 vcing generally known. 



the little new-landed girl exclaim for the 

 want of ' fountain-trees' and ' green par- 

 rots.' This is true to nature — but not less 

 so the real enthusiasm of Aliss Sedgwick, 

 on her first arriving in England, at the cot- 

 tage-gardens of the Isle of Wight. Again 

 and again she fixes upon them as the most 

 pleasing and striking feature in a land 

 where everything was new to her. Long 

 mr.y they so continue! It is a trait of 

 which England may well be proud ; for it 

 speaks — would we could trace it every- 

 where ! — of peace, and of the leisure, and 

 comfort, and contentedness of those who 

 ' shall never cease from the land.' 



We would even make gardens in gene- 

 ral a test of national prosperity and happi- 

 ness. As long as the British nobleman 

 continues to take an interest in his avenues 

 and hot-houses — his lady in her conserva- 

 tories and parterres — the squire overlooks 

 his laborers' allotments — the ' squiresses 

 and squirinas' betake themselves and their 

 flowers to the neighboring horticultural 

 show— the citizen sets up his cucumber- 

 frame in his back-yard — his dame her li- 

 lacs and almond-trees in the front-court — 

 the mechanic breeds his prize-competing 

 auriculas — the cottager rears his sun-flow- 

 ers and Sweet-Williams before his door — 

 and even the collier sports his ' posy jacket' 

 — as long, in a word, as this common inte- 

 rest pervades every class of society, so long 

 shall we cling to the hope that our country 

 is destined to outlive all her difficulties and 

 dangers. Not because, like the Peris, we 

 fight with flowers, and build amaranth 

 bowers, and bind our enemies in links of 

 roses — but because all this implies mutual 

 interest and intercourse of every rank, and 

 dependence of one class upon another — be- 

 cause it promotes an interchange of kind- 

 nesses and favors — because it speaks of 

 proprietors dwelling on their hereditary 

 acres, and the poorest laborer having an 

 interest in the soil — because it gives a local 

 attachment, and healthy exercise and inno- 

 cent recreation, and excites a love of the 

 country and love of our own country, and a 

 spirit of emulation, devoid of bitterness — 

 because it tells of wealth wisely spent, and 

 competence widely diffused, of taste culti- 

 vated, and science practically applied — be- 

 cause, unlike Napoleon's great lie, it does 



