278 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 9, 1866. 



its object, doubtless, the allowing yon to take a glance at the 

 interior and the people without being scanned. We all know 

 with what a stare new comers in an English drawing-room are 

 greeted, and this screen just answers the purpose of letting 

 the in-comers see and scan, if they like, those in the drawing- 

 room, and then quietly move in. These screens are used with 

 great advantage in hiding any object not wanted, in filling up 

 any blank earner, or in other ways ; and as they are readily 

 moved about may be used for several ends. For instance, a 

 common object, and none can be prettier, in a St. Petersburg 

 drawing-room is an alcove, or bower, formed at one of the 

 windows by two or more of these screens, adding a roof of 

 wire, on which the climbers are trained. I have seen these so 

 thick that a couple might sit comfortably and chat even with- 

 out being heard. 



It is not my intention to specify all the plants that are used 

 in this in-door decoration ; but if it be desired, I will make it 

 my duty to procure a list of those most commonly employed. 

 Palms, as a matter of course, are principally worked in, the 



taller ones at the back, and so on. They keep beautifully 

 green with a little sponging, and last year after year in the 

 hot rooms. 



The spaces between the windows are invariably filled with 

 plants — say an Ivy on each side, running up by the curtains, 

 or green-leaved plants, chiefly of the Palm tribe, in a pan in 

 the centre. This, backed by a strip of looking-glass, or with 

 one or two small flowering plants in their season in front, adds 

 to the tout ensemble (to borrow a useful expression), ofj the 

 room in a great degree. 



Your readers will readily understand from this how naturally 

 the inhabitants of the wintry St. Petersburg (it has seven 

 months of winter), try to make their rooms cheerful, and I am 

 sure we are all agreed that nothing tends so much to enliven a 

 room as plants judiciously arranged. The arrangement lies, of 

 course, with the tenants ; and in conclusion I may say that in 

 very few instances have I seen plants badly placed in the 

 Russian drawing-rooms. It may be that plants are never out 

 of place. — Patelix. 



ORIGINAL FLOWER GARDEN PLAN. 



My thanks are due for the criticism of the plans contained in 

 a late communication. I have long been an advocate for greater 

 simplicity in making and carrying out flower-garden designs, 

 being convinced of the pos- 

 sibility of producing re- 

 sults more favourable from 

 simple, well-planted, and, 

 consequently, well-under- 

 stood designs, than from 

 others too generally in 

 vogue, models though they 

 may he of well-studied geo- 

 metrical compositions. An 

 ideal plan or design, as I 

 take it, pleasing to all, is 

 one the merits of which the 

 eye can readily compre- 

 hend with pleasure. Hence 

 the reason why we so often 

 fail to feel a pleasure in 

 many well-planted gardens, 

 theirdesigns bting too com- 

 plicated. In lieu, there- 

 fore, of beds consisting of 

 figures, many of them in- 

 dividually wretched forms 

 of cornered and pointed 

 ugliness, I would advise all 

 to give their beds the sim- 

 plest, most readable outline 

 possible. The Editors eon- 

 firmed my statement, that 

 beds looked best from an 

 elevation ; and why is this 

 so ? For the simple reason 

 that we can more easily 

 discern and understand the object before us— can see its nicely- 

 adjusted outlines, as in miniature upon paper. 



I foresaw the fault pointed out by the Editors— namely, no 

 mode of ingress proper in my late plans. Yet is such really 

 necessary? I know the eye will always readily admit of it 

 when seen, on the score of utility, though I incline to the belief 

 that when wanting the eye seldom requires it in designs of 

 small magnitude upon grass. Another plan which I forward 

 has the same fault, though as the inner grass may be mown and 

 cleared with ease, I trust the objection is not too formidable. 



This truly simple plan has a very pleasing effect ; it admits 

 of associations in colour in a form the most pleasing, whether 

 the various colours be viewed upon a line level with the eye, or 

 the design be seen from an elevation as a whole. 



In conclusion, a word with reference to the odd number seven 

 in my two former plans. Where beds are connected in a circular 

 form, yet are required distinct in their bearings when planted, 

 I have a dislike to even numbers when the whole are reducible 

 to a minimum quantity, upon the same simple principle that a 

 trio would be a more pleasing circlet than four. In the former 

 number each bed may be planted upon a basis separable and 

 distinct from the others, yet be capable of a greater harmony as 



a whole, and this is because no appreciable or direct connection 

 is necessary in its bearing with a match bed, which it has not. 

 Hence, then, I push my odd numbers to as great a limit as 



possible consistent with the 

 size of my plan and the 

 materials in hand for the 

 formation of so many dis- 

 tinct beds, supposing that 

 each, whilst planted in har- 

 mony and proper contrast 

 with others throughout, is 

 in itself an odd bed. — Wm. 

 Eaeley, Digswell. 



[This third plan, though 

 looking very nice and a 

 credit to the designer, we 

 do not consider equal by 

 any means to that engraved 

 at page 222, and chiefly be- 

 cause it is so much more 

 complicated and less easily 

 worked. Like the other 

 two, this consists of a cir- 

 cular group on grass, in the 

 centre a small circle, which, 

 perhaps, would be better 

 if absent, or, if present, 

 merely as a plinth for a 

 tazza or vase, and then ten 

 large circles forming the 

 chain all round, each of 

 these circles in its outer 

 circumference cutting the 

 diameter of the circle next 

 to it at about a third of its 

 width. An inner circum- 

 ference leaves a narrow border all round the circles, which is 

 all that is intendpd to be planted, making thus a small pointed 

 oval on the side of each circle, or rather two, as they first 

 strike the eye, and a large open space somewhat heart-shaped 

 in the centre of each, the oval and this larger space being in- 

 tended for grass. The beauty of the plan consists in the cir- 

 cumferences of each circle being of a distinct colour, and the 

 fine blending that will take place by each of these circles being 

 crossed by two others having complementary or contrasting 

 colours. 



Our objections are much the same as stated formerly — the 

 necessity, in the management, of stepping or jumping over the 

 beds to reach the central piece of grass, and the next to knee- 

 and-scissor work that would be required to get at the grass of 

 the small ovals, unless the plan were on a large scale, and then 

 there would be wading through the borders of at least two 

 circles to reach them. Then, if the plan is on a small scale 

 —say, if these borders at the circumference of the circles are 

 from 12 to even 24 inches in width, low plants would require 

 to be used, and these would be apt to be lost amid so much 

 green grass around them. Of course, if the colours are clear 

 and distinct, even a circular border of 15 inches will often be 



