ON CHINESE GARDENS, 



ARTICLE VII. 



231 



ON CHINESE GARDENS. 



(Continued from page 208.) 



In their plantations, the Chinese Artists do not, as is the prac- 

 tice of some European Gardeners, plant indiscriminately every 

 thing that comes in their way; nor do they ignorantly imagine, that 

 the whole perfection of plantations consists in the variety of the 

 trees and shrubs of which they are composed : on the contrary, 

 their practice is guided by many rules, founded on reason and long 

 observation, from which they seldom or ever deviate. 



*' Many trees, shrubs and flowers," sayeth Li-Tsong, a Chinese 

 author of great antiquity, " thrive best in low moist situations ; 

 many on hills and mountains : some require a rich soil ; but others 

 will grow on clay, in sand, or even upon rocks ; and in the water ; 

 to some a sunny exposition is necessary ; but for others, the shade 

 is preferable. There are plants which thrive best in exposed 

 situations ; but, in general, shelter is requisite. The skillful gar- 

 dener, to whom study and experience have taught these qualities 

 carefully attends to them in his operations ; knowing that thereon 

 depend the health and growth of his plants ; and consequently the 

 beauty of his plantations. 



In China, as in Europe, the usual times of planting are the 

 autumn and the spring ; some things answering best when planted 

 in the first, and some in the last of these seasons. Their Gar- 

 deners avoid planting, whenever the grounds are so moist as to 

 endanger the rotting of the roots ; or when the frosts are so near 

 as to pinch the plants, before they have recovered the shock of 

 transplantation ; or when the earth and air are too dry to afford 

 nurture to them ; or when the weather is so tempestuous as to 

 shake or overturn them, whilst loose and unrooted in the 

 ground. 



They observe, that the perfection of trees for Ornamental 

 Gardening, consists in their size ; in the beauty and variety of their 

 forms, the colour and smoothness of their bark, the quantity, 

 shape, and rich verdure of their foliage ; with its early appearance 

 in the spring, and long duration in the autumn ; likewise in the 

 quickness of their growth, and their hardiness to endure the 

 extremities of heat, cold, drought or moisture ; in their making no 

 litter, during the spring ©r summer, by the fall of the blossom ; 

 and in the strength of their branches, to resist, unhurt, the violence 

 of tempests. 



