October 6,. 186J. ] 



JOTJENAIi OF HOETICUJbTUKB ANI> COTTAGE GAKBENEE. 



^5 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



ocTosER e.—ia, laes,, 



W. "Withering died, 1739. 

 Gomphrenas flower. 

 Autumri Crocus flowers. 

 Cyciamena (some) flower. 

 Lonicer born, 1528. Bot. 

 19 Sunday after, Te-ENitt. 

 China Pinks flower. 



Average Temperature 

 neur Louaon. 



Raia iD> 



laist 

 36 years. 



DayB, 

 30 

 L8 

 19 

 20 

 31 

 19, 

 20 



Sun 

 Rises. 



Iflaf a 



12 6 



13 6 

 15 6 



17 6 



18 6. 

 20 6 



Sun 

 Sets. 



h. 



27 at 5 



Moon 

 Rises. 



m. k. 

 morn. 



2.5 



30 I 



3ft 3 



■43 3 



52. 4 



6 



J^oon. 

 Sets. 



ra. h. 

 33 2 



Moon's 

 Age. 



21 

 24 

 25 

 36i 

 27 

 28 



9 



Clock 

 aflisi: 

 Sun. 



m. s.- 

 Ila46. 



13 3 



12- 20 



13 36 



12 52 



13 8 

 13 23 



Day of 

 YeaA 



279 

 280 

 381 

 283 

 283, 

 281 

 2»5- 



From observations taken near London during the last tbirty-six years, the average day temperature of the week is 61.3°,, and its nigUt 

 temperature 43.1°. The greatest, heat was 79^ on the 6th, 1834; and the lowest cold, 25°, on the 11th, 1360. The greatest fall of rain 

 was l.OO inch. 



KING CEOQUET AND FLOWEK-BEDS. 



KEW inonarcli lias entered our 

 sarden.s — -an innovator, a tyrant. 

 Perhaps — for there is hope even 

 in the worst cases — lie may be- 

 come an improver, or rather he 

 may cause improvement. His 

 name is " Xing Croquet." Hun- 

 dreds, perhaps thousands, of ladies 

 are his devoted servants, and diu'- 

 iag the last spring and summer 

 have been, each iveck extending his. do- 

 minions ; and, of course, where ladies 

 take the lead gentlemen follow— bound 

 thereto by duty— doubly bound by incli- 

 nation. 



Your poetic readers will remember Cowper's lines 

 descriptive of the wonders wrought by Brown, the rural 

 designer of the last ceBtary— - 



'* Lo! he comes! 

 Th' omnipotent magician. Brown, appears. 

 He speaks— the lake in Irout becomes a lawn." 



Now, thia present tyrant, King Croquet, does not turn 

 lakes into lawns, but at am' rate he is fast turning flower- 

 beds into lawns. For instance : There is my neighbour 

 the Vicar of Blankton, a rigid old bachelor, yet having 

 many nieces. He therefore must make room for Croquet 

 on his lawn ; and lo and behold ! his pretty flower-beds 

 are nearly all gone. Is not Croquet a king f Then there 

 is my new neighbour, the recently appointed Hector of 

 Dashborough, in laying out his gai'deii (new rectors have 

 new tastes, or, as the Scotch say, " New lairds mak new 

 laws"), has just squeezed in two or three beds under his 

 drawing-room windows, but King Croquet has all the 

 rest of the lawn to himself. Is not Croquet a tyrant ? 

 Then there is the dear old Incumbent of Thorp-Sleepy, 

 with an austere wife, and six daughters exceedingly like 

 mamma. Dear old man ! he told me in strict confidence 

 and with a woeful smile, that " he was not only hen- 

 pecked but chicken-pecked." Well, of course, his hobby 

 — some nice low-standard Bose-bcds, are clean swept out 

 of the way to make room for Croquet. But worst of all 

 — for there is yet a worst — there is tlie Squire of Cham- 

 paign, who has two little square flat fields of lawn on 

 two sides of his house ; he, having given up one entirely 

 to Croquet, has covered up the beds on the other side 

 for uniformity's sake. Is not King Croquet a des]]otic 

 monarch indeed? Wherever I look, on whatever side of 

 of me I glance, I find that during this year's spring and 

 summer Croquet has reigned supreme ; and, rely upon it, 

 reign on he will for many a year, for C'roquet is a famous 

 game, it amuses aU, and mammas of ku-ge broods of 

 marriageable pullets tell me it is decidedly conducive to 

 matrimony. 



But is there no hope ? Is all dark — no light in the 



picture ? Must Flora vanish ? I trust not. A tyrant 



has come indeed, but another is gone. For the last ten 



years we proprietors of small gardens have had the Gera- 



No. 132.— ToL. v., New Series. 



nium fever {usually of a, very Scarlet type) — forgive the 

 pun, dear reader. Why, on my little lawn I had eighteen 

 l3eds'. Happily I was not so deeply guilty as some of 

 my neighbours, for I did not destroy my dear old mixed 

 borders. But it has been Geraniums everywhere ; for 

 Calceolarias, Petunias, and Verbenas have not borne 

 their fit proportion, being more difficult to keep alive 

 and healthy during the winter. My house has for seven 

 months of each year been Geranium-i'idden — laundi-y 

 fuU, study windows full, dressing-room ditto ; and if I 

 go down into my cellar I knock my head against Tom 

 Thumbs hung up (not for their sins as they ought to have 

 been), from the ceiling, but to be planted out next year. 



Now I foresee that this Geranium rage wUl — must-— 

 decline before King Croquet ; and is there much cause 

 for regret if it does so decline ? I think not. Have w,e 

 not been guilty of a kiud of floral elephantiasis, nurturing 

 one kind of plants, " bedding plants," to the great injury 

 of others' — one large swollen red Hmb or feature, say 

 red nose, whUe the other features have dwindled and 

 shriveUedl to- nothing ? 



At the same time let no reader think that I am inseni- 

 sible to the great beauty of a bed of Geraniums. Far 

 from it : but there are other flowers of equal beauty. 

 Then, too, the bedding plants have become border plants, 

 turning out the riglltml inhabitants — the fine, grand, 

 time-honoured, herbaceous, shrubby, sub-shrubby, and 

 bidbous plants. Also, let it be remembered I speak only 

 of smail gardens^ not of the gardens belonging to our 

 great, country houses, where there is room for everything 

 in large portions. But as an example of what I think 

 a garden owght to be, let me speak of one belonging to a 

 near neighbour of mine. 



This gentleman would not allow his garden to be 

 dressed ouit like a "nigger girl," "all red and flaring, but 

 would preserve his borders at least from the intrusive 

 bedding plants. I paid him a visit last April. His 

 garden, though smaR', was a marvel of beauty. At every 

 five paces of his long border there rose the stately stem 

 and glorious foliage of the yellow Fritillaria ; at other 

 distances other colours of the same kind of plants. Then 

 there was evei-y sort of Anemone, from the wild white 

 to the most richly-hued double ; " Polyanthus of un- 

 numbered dyes " everywhere ; Auriculas ; patches of 

 Arabis, and yellow Alyssuon, and many other fiowers 

 whose names I know not. Indeed, my friend's border 

 was exquisitely beautiful, and not the beauty of flower 

 alone but of leaf. Now had my worthy neighbour yielded 

 to the fashion of the day, this marvel of beauty which 

 I beheld would at that time of the year have been merely 

 a marvel of mould ; for say what one will, you cannot 

 grow even bulbs with bedding plants, for if left they are 

 in the way, and if removed they are unripe and so injured. 

 This I found to be specially true of the scarlet Turban 

 Kannnculus, though scarcely a bulb. I must add that 

 I again saw my friend's garden in June, then in July, 

 then lastly in August ; and at all times, owing to his cul- 

 tivating the herbaceous and shrubby flowers, his borders 

 looked pleasing to the eye. 



No. 784.— Vol. XXX., Old Sekies. 



