LAYIXG-OUT OF THE BOTAXIC GARDEN. 175 



ecouomv and tlie arts. Great Britain and its colonies 

 by themselves miglit yield a most instructive exhibition 

 of this kind. The museum in the Eoyal Gardens at Kew 

 is the object of high patronage, and is rapidly increasing 

 in magnitude and importance. A promising beginning 

 has also been made at Edinbm-gh, which, it is to be 

 hoped, ^vill continue to make progress. In both cases, 

 however, much remains to be done before they can be said 

 to have accomphshed their proper object. Meanwhile 

 they ai-e worthy of aU aid and approbation, as most 

 useful and instructive parts of the institntions to which 

 they belong. The teiritorial principle was well exem- 

 plified in the Great Exhibition of 1851. 



Laying -out of the Botanic Garden. — The botanic gar- 

 den, particularly when extensive, may be regarded as 

 a combination of the pleasui'e-ground and the flower- 

 garden — the former character predominating in the 

 arboretum, and the latter in the smaller and more orna- 

 mental flower-beds and borders. From the limited 

 extent of space, and the variety of special adaptations 

 to particular pm-poses, it is diflicult to introduce much 

 of the pictorial effect arising from the groups of trees 

 and shrubs, interspersed with lawns, which is so promi- 

 nent a feature in a well laid-out pleasure-ground. Still, 

 we think that much more of it might be secured than is 

 commonly accomplished or even attempted in these 

 gardens. At present, we can offer only a few hints, 

 and these rather in the way of pointing out faults to be 

 amended, than as a full exposition of a subject of some 

 intricacy, and requiiing a considerable amoimt of minute 

 detail. 



The site of the plant-houses is a matter of rtiling im- 

 portance in the aiTangement of the several parts of a 



