RESERVE-GROUND. 



264 



RHAMNUS. 



garden, accidents, diseases, and ; 

 many other causes, occasion blanks i 

 or deformities in beds and borders, i 

 and the use of a reserve-ground is to : 

 contain a number of growing plants 

 that at a moment's notice can be 

 taken up and planted in the place 

 of those which have ceased to be 

 ornamental or desirable. Wherever 

 there is a greenhouse, it can hardly 

 be kept in high order without a pit 

 or frame in the reserve ground 

 for striking cuttings, and bringing 

 forward plants to supply the place 

 of those which are no longer orna- 

 mental in the greenhouse ; and par- 

 ticularly for forcing bulbs and 

 bringing forward annuals, such as 

 Balsams, Scbizanthus, &c., which 

 are exceedingly ornamental when in 

 flower, but without showy foliage 

 at every other season. The reserve- 

 ground, therefore, in point of ex- 

 tent, must bear some relation to the 

 extent and the character of the 

 garden which it is intended to supply. 

 The smallest residence should have 

 a few square yards of reserve ground, 

 including a pit, in an open airy 

 situation, but concealed from the 

 ornamental parts of the grounds ; 

 and residences of twenty or thirty 

 acres in extent, will require several 

 pits, and the sixth or fourth part 

 of an acre as reserve-ground. Where 

 there is a wailed kitchen-garden, 

 the reserve-ground may very con- 

 veniently be placed adjoining the 

 frame or forcing-ground or form 

 part of it ; and in places so small 

 as to have no kitchen-garden, a 

 concealed glade, open to the south, 

 with or without a small pit or frame, 

 ■will still be necessary. The grand 

 points respecting a reserve-ground, 

 which it is desirable to impress on 

 an amateur gardener, are, first that 

 a reserve-ground, including a pit, 

 however small it may be, is essen- 

 tial to the keeping in high order of 



every plot of garden-ground, even 

 those in front of street-houses, and 

 of every garden of plants in pots, 

 even those kept on window-sills and 

 in balconies ; secondly, that the re- 

 serve-ground must be in an open, 

 airy situation, not shaded by trees ; 

 thirdly, that the herbaceous plants 

 planted in the open ground in the 

 reserve-garden, must be taken up 

 with balls of earth, and replanted 

 twice or thrice a year, and the 

 shrubs once a year ; and fourthly, 

 that where there is a choice of soil, 

 that of the reserve-ground should 

 be of a loamy nature, such as will 

 adhere to the roots of the plants, 

 and never of sand, which will drop 

 away from them. Where there is 

 no reserve-garden, there is no pos- 

 sible way by which even a street- 

 garden, or the pots on a window- 

 sill, can be kept always in the highest 

 order, but by having recourse to 

 the commercial gardener. 



Rest-harrow. — See Ono'nis. 



Rham'nus. — PJiamnaceoe. — The 

 Buckthorn. — Handsome deciduous 

 and evergreen shrubs; some of 

 which almost attain the size and 

 appearance of small trees, and others 

 are procumbent shrubs only fitted 

 for rock-work. They are all, how- 

 ever, distinguished by a stiff upright 

 manner of growth, and numerous 

 strong thorns, from which they 

 derive their name of Buckthorn. 

 The flowers are generally small and 

 not ornamental, but the berries are 

 very much so ; and the evergreen 

 kinds are very valuable in shrub- 

 beries, from their hardiness and 

 free habit of growth. The Alater- 

 nus {Rhdmnus Alaternus) is par- 

 ticularly valuable, because it bears 

 coal-sm(.>ke and the confined air of 

 towns better than most other ever- 

 greens. 



Rhdmnus Cathdrticus, the Purg- 

 ing Buckthorn, is a deciduous shrub 



