MRS. LOUDON'S LADIES' FLOWER GARDEN. 



385 



Arabian nights, draw, at least for a little 

 while, all the needles out of the many fair 

 hands whose possessors think them the on- 

 ly befitting implements of occupation, and 

 magnetize such persons daily into the light 

 cares of the garden, in the soft and cool air 

 of our summer mornings and evenings. 

 The joy, the interest, which the personal 

 cultivation of flowers gives to a garden it- 

 self, is a thing but too little understood in 

 America. To one who knows flowers by 

 this kind of individual care, this daily inte- 

 rest in the unfolding of every new beauty, 

 a garden has an intensity of meaning which 

 common observers know nothing about. 

 The difference between their enjoyment 

 and that of the mere pleased idler in a 

 garden, is the difference between Sir Joshua 

 Reynolds' informed delight in the great 

 paintings in the Sistine chapel, or Hazlitt's 

 in the gallery of the Louvre, and that of 

 the common-place tourist who goes every 

 where to see sights, with his guide-book in 

 his hand, and truly sees and feels nothing. 



Mrs! Loudon's works before us, are exe- 

 cuted in a very clever and excellent man- 

 ner, which does credit to her knowledge and 

 good taste. The grouping of the flowers 

 themselves, which are presented in each 

 plate, is more agreeably managed than we 

 remember to have seen it previously done. 



The chief value of these works to Horti- 

 cultural readers generally, lies in the excel- 

 lent means it affords themof selecti7is[ from 



all that is necessary to make a showy flower 

 garden, is to sow the ground with a great 

 many different kinds of flower seeds. A 

 few flowers of the most brilliant and orna- 

 mental kinds, arranged so as to harmonize 

 in their colors and habits of growth, will 

 produce more effect than three or four times 

 the number sown injudiciously, and after- 

 wards comparatively neglected. On look- 

 ing into most flower gardens, it will be 

 found that the annuals are crowded too-e- 

 ther, each tuft having been left unthinned; 

 and that plants, having been neither train- 

 ed nor pruned, present, as they grow up, 

 the most tawdry appearance, without either 

 the grace and elegance of wild nature, or 

 the trimness and neatness of art. A flow- 

 er garden is essentially artificial ; not only 

 from the avowed art displayed in its geiieral 

 shape, and in the artistical form of its beds, 

 but in the flowers of so many different coun- 

 tries, and even climates, being brought to- 

 gether in the same locality. Every thin*^ 

 in short in the flower garden shows that it 

 was planted by the hand of man ; and the 

 flowers themselves, to be in keeping with 

 the garden, should show also the hand of 

 man in their training." 



The group of flowers which forms each 

 plate, is composed of allied genera, so that 

 the tyro in botany may take a pleasant les- 

 son in the natural orders while turning over 

 the leaves. 



These works have had a large and well 



the great variety of beautiful plants, which deserved sale in Great Britain. There is 



now enter into the catalogues of seedsmen 

 and dealers, such as are really most desi- 

 rable for the objects which they have in 

 view. 



The directions for culture, with which 

 these works abound, are simple and perspi- 

 cuous. " It is a common error," says Mrs. 

 Loudon, in her preface, " to suppose that 



49 



unfortunately no mode of cheapening ex- 

 pensive colored plates in this country, so 

 that their possession here, must, owing to 

 their price, be confined within a small class. 

 To those who can indulge in the luxury of 

 beautiful works, we cordially present these 

 as also full of interest and instruction on the 

 subjects treated of. 



