HINTS TO BEGINNERS IN ORNAMENTAL PLANTING. 



larger and more common as you recede from it. Near your house, let there be occa- 

 sional patches of unbroken lawn, and as you go from it let the trees approach nearer and 

 nearer together until they mingle with the belts at the boundaries.* As an exception 

 to this general rule, however, it is well to leave openings, here and there, for views 

 from the house into the remotest parts of your grounds ; and let these vistas termi- 

 nate on some pleasing object, as an arbor, a shady dell, or favorite tree with a rustic 

 seat beneath it. But of tree-planting, I will say nothing further, except to quote 

 the advice of the old Laird of Dumbiedike to his son : '' Jock, when ye hae naething 

 else to do, ye may be aye sticking in a tree^ it will be growing, Jock, when ye're 

 sleeping. My father tauld me sae forty years sin', but I naer faud time to mind 

 him." 



Of shrubs and flowering plants, the larger kinds may be used as fringes to your 

 belts and groups of trees, some maybe arranged in masses by themselves, and others 

 separately by the side of your roads and walks. If you plant in beds by the side of 

 your walks — and this is a very good arrangement — set the largest in the rear, 

 and the smallest next to the walk. And if you set them alternately, running in 

 a zig-zag line, they will all be in immediate view from the walks. To twine about 

 the pillars of your piazza, or to clamber over your porch and windows, plant such 

 vines as the Chinese Wistaria, Virginia creeper, Trumpet honeysuckle, and perhaps 

 some of the climbing roses. 



Let me say in conclusion, undertake nothing but what you can do thoroughly. 

 Do not plant with a view to please every body ; but let your work be an expression 

 of yourself. Make your place in keeping with your purse and condition. If you 

 have wealth to use in the gratification of your taste, do not make a display of it. 

 Remember, too, that a great establishment is a great care, and that the proprietor is 

 very apt to become a slave to it. Be content with a tasteful simplicity. Let your 

 dwelling place be marked with what painters call " repose." Make it the abode of 

 comfort and refined enjoyment, a place which will always aftbrd you cheerful occu- 

 pation, but not oppress you with care. Of this mode of moral life, it may be said, 

 as of Cleopatra's beauty. 



" Age cannot wither, custom cannot stale 

 Its infinite variety." 



Proceeding upon such a plan as this, you will certainly find in your work from year 

 to year, some of the purest enjoyment under the sun. And if, as it is said, ' there 

 are thirty thousand species of plants known, and at least thirty millions of varied 

 combinations of landscape scenery possible,' you will not soon lack for employment. 



[The foregoing article is perhaps the most complete and satisfactory treatise for 

 its length, on Landscape Gardening that we have ever read. Those who study it 

 will possess the true outlines of the science. We trust our able correspondent will 

 frequently use his pen for the Horticulturist. — Ed.] 



* Of a certain country-seat in Enprland, Loudon says : " Nothing can bo more judiciously disposed than the trees 

 in tliis ground. * * * * Iminodiately in frontofthe house the surface contains very fine trci's, hut at a sho 

 distance these commence, at first thinly scattered and sparingly grouped, and thou increased iu number 

 groups unite in masses, and the masses are lost in one grand valley of wood." 



