CRITIQUE ON MAY HORTICULTURIST. 



' The tower of Babel not yet finished, 



' St. George in box ; his arm scarce long enough, but will be in condition to 

 stick the dragon by next April. 



' A green dragon of the same, with a tail of ground-ivy for the present. 



' N. B. These two not to be sold separately. 



' Edward, the Black Prince, in cypress. 



' A laurestine bear in blossom, with a juniper hunter in berries. 



' A pair of giants, stunted, to be sold cheap. 



' A Queen Elizabeth in phylyreea, a little inclining to the green sickness, but of 

 full growth. 



' Another Queen Elizabeth in myrtle, which was very forward, but was injured 

 by being too near a savine. 



' An old maid of honor in wormwood. 



' A topping Ben Jonson in laurel. 



' Divers eminent modern poets in bays, somewhat blighted, to be disposed of, a 

 pennyworth. 



' A quickset hog- shot up into a porcupine, by its being forgot a week in rainy 

 weather. 



' A lavender pig, with sage growing in his belly. 



' Noah's ark in holly, standing on the mount ; the ribs a little damaged for want 

 of water.' " 



Lord Bacon, in the forty-sixth of his essays, describes what he calls the platform 

 of a princely gardeii, which is very superior to the description which Sir William 

 Temple has given in his essay, entitled The Gardens of Epicurus, written in a 

 subsequent age. This is alluded to by Mason, in his English Garden, thus : — 



" Yes, sagest Verulam, 

 'Twas thine to banish from the royal groves 

 Each childish vanity of crisped knot 

 And sculptur'd foliage ; to tlie lawn restore 

 Its ample space, and bid it feast the sight 

 With verdure pure, unbroken, iinabridg'd : 

 For verdure soothes the eye, as roseate sweets 

 The smell, or music's melting strains the ear." 



CRITIQUE ON THE MAY HORTICULTURIST. 



Evergreens, and other Hatters Evergreens are picturesque in many grounds — 



beautiful, too, when both soil and climate suit them. Otherwise, they had better 

 be let alone. A foxy looking Evergreen, studded with bare spines, striking out 

 like " quills upon the fretful porcupine," is anything but agreeable to the eye or 

 taste of one who loves luxuriant vegetation in trees. The great difficulty which 

 1 have observed with Evergreens in park or lawn culture is, that they are stowed 

 in promiscuously and thickly among the deciduous trees, and, after a few years of 

 Cue conical growth, they become crowded, the lower branches fade and die, and 

 their entire beauty is lost in bare poles, with frizzled tufts of spiny leaves at the 

 tops, a burlesque only upon the noble family of which they should be honored 

 specimens. If you affect Evergreens at all, give them abundant breadth of space ; 

 then let them have their entire will of sweep, and range, and spray, and they 

 become striking objects of admiration and beauty. My heart has been so often 

 saddened by seeing the poor crippled things stuck into a crowded door-yard, or 

 passage, and then barbarously clipped into some grotesque imitation of 

 othing which a tree should be, that I have wished for the moment they wer 



