90 PRACTICAL GAEDENING. 



flowering dwarf Americans, whicL. show their "blooms only in 

 spring, and enliven the scene when it ^fould otherwise be 

 sombre. The Pyrus japonica, with its scarlet flowers, begins 

 in the autumn, and continues, if mild, all the mnter. The 

 dwarf ahnond is almost the first to show the approach of 

 spring ; and numerous other plants, unimportant in them- 

 selves, contribute to the beauty of a well-j)lanted border. The 

 path once laid down, the turves soon carpet the space, and 

 nothing so soon puts a finish on the landscape garden. 



"We have here only spoken of the most simple style of 

 gardening ; we say nothing of water or rock-work, of hill or 

 dale, nor of flower-gardens : all those require separate notice, 

 and will have it ; we have merely recommended that, as a 

 summer-house is the first thing everybody thinks of, it should 

 be on a good large scale, in imitation of a temple ; that the 

 ground, if it be but an acre, should be laid out in landscape 

 fashion, and that the rules of landscape gardening be observed 

 in every movement ; — a formal shrubbery is a frightful ob- 

 ject. The botanical garden at White Knights, abounding w^th 

 noble specimens, is altogether spoiled by its formality; the 

 trees are in straight lines, or parallel beds ; and though their 

 different gro"\vths have spoiled the uniformity a little, there 

 never was a better proof of the impropriety of straight lines 

 in a garden than that collection of splendid trees and shrubs 

 affords. 



Edgings. — Of the many subjects that make edgings for 

 beds and borders, the first and foremost is box ; for it can be 

 kept neater and cleaner than anything else, and there can be 

 nothing in the vegetable world that is kept so easily within 

 moderate bounds. The formation of box edgings, too, may 

 be accomplished with an exactness that cannot be preserved 

 with any other subject. It may be made an inch above the 

 ground, and half an inch thick, and laid to any figiu'e with 

 the exactness of a line. The whole art of making a good box 

 edging consists in first trimming the box, tearing it to pieces 

 not thicker than the line is wanted, cutting the tops square, 

 and adjusting the roots so that they will not go too far down ; 

 next, levelling the edge of the bed or border, and treading it 

 hard, putting soil on where it sinks too much, and paring it 

 off where it is too high ; having with a rake made the surface 

 smooth, stretch the line tight exactly where the edging is to 

 go ; pat it doAvn with the spade, so as to make a mark with 



