THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



the Apples (a garden in their varied flowers alone) ; Pears, wild and 

 cultivated ; Crabs, pretty in bloom and bright in fruit ; Quinces, 

 Medlars, Snowy Mespilus, Almonds, Double Cherries, Japan Quinces, 

 Plums (including Sloe and Bullace), not to speak of a number of less 

 important families. Among these, the larger and more important 

 branches of this great order of plants, there is some likeness in habit 

 and size, which allows of similar use. 



The Double Peaches are among the most precious of trees of this 

 order, but for some reason we rarely see them in any but a miserable 

 state in England. In France they are sometimes lovely not only 

 in the flower, but in the mass of colour from healthy growth. It 

 may be that the failure of the shoots to ripen in our cool climate is 

 owing to some weakness through grafting on a bad stock. There is 

 such a great and noble variety among these trees that there is room 

 for distinct effects. An excellent point in favour of trees like Thorns, 

 Crabs, Almonds, and Bird Cherries is that, in their maturity, they, in 

 groups or single specimens, stand free on the turf — free, too, from all 

 care ; and it is easy to see how important this is for all who care for 

 English tree-fringed lawns — a long way more beautiful than any 

 other kind of tree garden. 



It is not only the flowers on the trees we have to think of, but also 

 in the house — as cut flowers gathered when the buds are ready to open 

 — gathering the branchlets and long twigs before the flowers are quite 

 out and placing them in vases in rooms. In very bad weather this 

 way will prolong the bloom for us, or even save it in the case of very 

 hard frost, and in a cold spring it will advance the bloom a little, the 

 warmth of the house giving a few days' gain in time of opening. As 

 to the kinds of shrubs that may be cut for the house in this way, 

 there are many of the same race, from the Sloe to the beautiful kinds 

 of Apple. There is a good deal in putting them into the right sort 

 of glass. The Japanese are very clever in fitting the flowers into vases 

 so that each may show its form and beauty best. Mr. Alfred Parsons 

 says he noticed that flowers seem to last longer in bronze, in which, 

 it may be, the action of the light is less than in an ordinary vessel. 



While such trees as the Almond or Crab will usually be in the 

 more distant parts of the garden picture, the variety of flowering 

 shrubs is so great that we may choose from among them for the 

 most precious of flower garden beds. Take an ordinary flower garden 

 under the windows of the house, often with the beds in winter as 

 bare as oilcloth. What beautiful groups of flowering evergreens we 

 might plant in them ! Mountain Laurels (Kalmia), Japan and 

 American Andromeda, Azaleas, choice Evergreen Barberries, alpine 

 Cotoneaster, Evergreen Daphne, Desfontainea, in the south ; the taller 

 hardy Heaths, Escallonia, Ledum, alpine and wild forms of Rhodo- 



