186 REVIEW. 



" American plants. " In extensive places, a separate " American garden" is 

 often formed in a locality which if not damp, has at least the command of 

 water, occupying generally some warm corner of the park. 



Some writers have advocated the formation of winter and spring gardens 

 in separate localities ; but we are not aware that their ideas have ever been 

 embodied to any great extent. It is proposed that in the winter garden 

 should be assembled all the hardy evergreen shrubs and plants, together 

 with the few flowers that bloom during the winter months. The situation, 

 it is recommended, should be well sheltered, and open only to the warm 

 rays of the sun, which are peculiarly grateful in our cold brumal seasons. 

 However attractive this scheme may be in theory, it seems doubtful whether 

 it would be very successful in execution. Masses of evergreens have a 

 sombre and monotoneous effect, even in winter, unless occasionally broken 

 and varied by deciduous trees. The contrast of their leafless neighbours 

 relieves the intenseness of their gloom, and sets off their brilliancy. Though 

 a winter garden, the very name of which is chilling, is perhaps not very 

 desirable by itself, the object to be attained in it should be kept in view in 

 the formation of the park or flower garden. We can easily suppose a par- 

 ticular section of the latter to contain a predominance of evergreens, and to 

 possess the principal characters of a winter garden, without the formality 

 of its name and purpose. In the endless variety of situations, it is not 

 difficult to imagine a sloping bank, for instance, facing the sun, with a long 

 walk skirting its base, the| lower side of which might be adorned with a 

 border or narrow paterre planted with arbutus and periwinkle, whilst the 

 slope is covered with the higher evergreens, and the summit of the acclivity 

 is crowned with groups of deciduous trees, interrupted by a few straggling 

 firs, through which the wind, uufelt below, might sigh its melancholy music. 

 Again, the spring garden, which need not be of very great extent, may take 

 refuge in the vicinity of the green-house or conservatory, with which it is 

 naturally allied. 



Soil. 



A variety of soils is required in the flower-garden, to suit the very dif- 

 ferent kinds of plants that fall to be cultivated To florists' flowers par. 

 ticular compounds are assigned, and these shall be mentioned when treating 

 of the flowers themselves. American plants require a peaty earth, varying 

 from boggy peat to almost pure sand. Alluvial peat, that is bogoy earth 

 which has been washed away and incorporated with white sand, it is to be 

 preferred ; peat, cut from its natural bed and only partially decomposed, is 

 of no value at all, or it is positively prejudicial to plants. In collecting soil 

 from the surface of the muir, it is proper to take no more than the upper 

 turf or sod, with the peat adhering to it, and only from the driest parts of 

 the muir, where, besides the common heath, fescue-grasses occur. Where 

 this cannot be procured, a good substitute is found in vegetable mould, 

 that is, decayed leaves swept from lawns or woods, and allowed to lie in 

 heaps for a few years. For the general purposes of the flower-garden a 

 light loamy soil is advantageous ; and were the natural covering is thin, or 

 requires making up, recourse should be had to the surface-earth of old pas- 

 tures, which, especially when incumbent on trap rocks, is found to be excel- 

 lent. It is expedient to have a large mass of this material in the compost 

 yard. The turf, and the surface soil adhering to it, should be laid up in a 

 rough state, in which way it is continually ameliorating, by the decomposition 

 ef the vegetable maiters, and the action of the air. 



(To bt Continued.) 



