THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 89 



at least a foot. Hollow walls are formed by placing the bricks on 

 edge alternately with their faces and ends outside, so that every 

 second brick is a tie, and every course alternates in the order of 

 facings, so that every end comes over and under a full face. By 

 this means a nine-inch wall of great strength is obtained, and a 

 considerable saving of bricks is effected. 



" ' When a live fence is preferred to a wall, the question will 

 arise, What shall it be ? Thorn is the quickest and cheapest, and if 

 well arranged makes an effectual fence, but it is not well adapted for 

 a garden. Common Privet soon makes a dense evergreen boundary, 

 useful alike for shelter and to impose a check on thieves, especially 

 when it obtains a height of six or seven feet. The beautiful large- 

 leaved Privet, Ligustrum ovalifolium, is as fast-growing and hand- 

 some a plant as can be used for a garden fence, and will cost but 

 little more than the common Privet. Everybody knows that Holly 

 is the finest of all boundary plants, but it should never be planted 

 by a tenant at will unless the landlord is willing to pay for it, and 

 in every case it will require the growth of years to thicken into a 

 barrier and make a fair return for the money and labour invested in 

 it. For general purposes common Privet is the very best of boun- 

 dary plants for enclosing a garden, for it is not only evergreen and 

 grows as close as a mat if planted thick enough, but it soon gets up 

 to a useful height, so that no one can see through or over it.' 



" The subject of edgings for walks and borders is admittedly a 

 perplexing one to many amateurs, and, as the author sagely remarks, 

 ' one way out of the difficulty is to do without edgings '; but he does 

 not leave the matter there. After a favourable word for the good 

 and well-tried Box edging, and an unfavourable one for many 

 edging tiles, which ' split into fragments after hard frost,' he says, 

 • There cannot be a doubt that in a majority of cases a plank on 

 edge fixed to posts driven down at distances of eight feet or so, is 

 the best possible edging for a kitchen garden. The paltry lath sort 

 of stuff we sometimes see is not to be considered plank on edge. 

 We want planks one inch thick and four to nine inches broad, and 

 they should not be sunk into the ground at all, but the border 

 should be made up to them. The top edge may be rounded, and 

 that is all the fine art possible, unless it is determined to pitch or 

 paint them. Finally, a substantial stone moulding is the proper 

 thing, and happy, in one sense at least, are those who can afford it.' 



" The practice of growing fruit and vegetables on the same plot 

 of ground is described as a mistake because it is unprofitable, and a 

 variety of modes of associating these two branches of gardening are 

 suggested ; but fruit trees on lawns and in shrubberies are not con- 

 sidered incompatible. On this subject, which is now receiving the 

 attention of our readers, we cite the following : — ' It must be under- 

 stood at starting, that while some kinds of fruit are decidedly orna- 

 mental, others are as decidedly not so. All the most valuable 

 household fruits — Apples, Pears, Cherries, and Plums are decidedly 

 ornamental, and adapted to embellish the lawn and shrubbery, and 

 give shade to the summer house and the croquet ground. There are 

 several kinds not usually regarded as proper to the fruit garden that 



March. 



