Floral Notes. 



29 



Floral 



Grouping Plants. — There is no way in 

 which the deadening form;ilism of our 

 gardens may be more eiFectually destroyed 

 than by the system of naturally grouping 

 hardy plants. It may afford most pleasing 

 results, and impress on others the amount 

 of variety and loveliness to be obtained from 

 many families now unused. Trees and 

 shrubs, distinguished for their fine foliage, 

 collected in a quiet glade ; and then bright 

 foliage trees should be set in contrast with 

 quieter colors, and varied with bright beds 

 of flowers and leaf plants, or hardy flowering 

 shrubs. Those groups should be irregularly, 

 but artistically, planted. Then, on a knoll, 

 plant a large bouquet of the rosaceous family 

 — hawthorns, cherries, plums, pears, peaches, 

 almonds, etc. There is so much that may 

 be done to add to the bewildering beauty of 

 a landscape by naturally artistic planting, 

 that we are often astonished that people do 

 not " see it." — Rural New-Yorker. 



Ferneries.— In planting ferns of all kinds, 

 it is well to remember that they do best in 

 coarse-grained, not sifted, soil, except, per- 

 haps, for seedlings which are being started 

 under glass. A very tasteful addition to 

 the plants of this rock bed wiM be a few 

 roots of our common evergreen ivy, which 

 will flourish beautifully, and cling to the 

 stones over which it clambers just as upon a 

 wall. 



Another design for a fernery in a small 

 front yard will be to build up a kind of pil- 

 lar of rock-work, formed of old bricks or 

 stones, whichever may be most convenient 

 to obtain, leaving numerous openings on all 

 sides, into which the ferns are to be planted, 

 also tradescantia, saxifrage, or any other 

 hanging plant, a bunch of handsome wall 

 ferns, such as maiden-hair, forming a grace- 

 ful tuft to crown the top. If in a very 

 shady, damp place, the bricks will soon be- 

 come green and mossy, which will greatly 

 improve the general effect.— Harper's Bazar. 



Shade Trees.— A house with shade and 

 fruit trees set around it, a neat fence or 



IsTotes. 



hedge in front, a row of box or pansies grow- 

 ing by the walk, and a climbing rose growing 

 by the door, will sell for much more than if 

 there were none of these, to any intelligent 

 purchaser ; so that, aside from the pleasure 

 one takes in enjoying a pleasant and attract- 

 ive home, it pays, in a pecuniary sense, to 

 beautify the premises. 



Landers' Love of Flowers. — He was 

 always drawing analogies between children 

 and flowers, and there was no mere fancy in 

 the well-known lines : 



" And 'tis and ever was my wish and way 

 To let all flowers live freely, and all die 

 Whene'er their genius bids their soul depart, 

 Among their kindred in their native place. 

 I never pluck the rose; the violet's head 

 Hath shaken with my breath upon its bank 

 And not reproached me; the ever sacred cup 

 Of the pure lily hath, between my bands, 

 Felt safe, unsoiled, nor lost one grain of gold." 

 In his garden, he would bend over the 

 flowers with a sort of worship, but rarely 

 touched one of them. 



"I remember," he wrote to Southey in 

 1811, " a little privet which I planted when 

 I was about six years old, and which I con- 

 sidered the next of kin to me after my 

 mother and elder sister. Whenever I re- 

 turned from school or college, for the at- 

 tachment was not stifled in that sink, I felt 

 something like uneasiness till I had seen 

 and measured it." 



The form which the notoriety of this sen- 

 timent took in the Florentine legend was 

 that he had one day, after an imperfect din- 

 ner, thrown the cook out of the window, 

 and, while the man was writhing with a 

 broken limb, ejaculated, " Good God ! I 

 forgot the violets." 



Cut oS" the flowers of roses as they fade ; 

 the second crop will be much the better for 

 the attention. Seeds of all flowering plants 

 should also be taken ofi". All this assists 

 the duration of the blooming season. 



Hardiness of Flower Seeds. — Every 

 spring I look over my flower beds before 

 spading, in order to ascertaiij what plants 



