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parts of which should always be wide enough to afford sufficient room for the 

 scythe, — say, five to six feet at the least. The beds should be made to harmo- 

 nize with each other ; the swell or convex part of one bed should appear to 

 retire in some degree into the recess or hollow part of another, and should by 

 all means run parallel to the walk, and not seem to start off at right angles to 

 it. (See General Plan.) I mean those that are nearest to it. The small beds 

 will produce the best effect when associated with the larger ones, and not when 

 assembled together, the smaller beds in one neighbourhood, and the larger 

 ones in another. I never introduce wire basket-work about any but round 

 beds ; with these, basket-work and iron edgings are strictly in character, and 

 are an indispensable ornament to them. 



Before commencing my observations on the various classes of the Flower 

 Garden, I will take the liberty of addressing a few remarks to gardeners 

 generally. From the httle attention paid to the cultivation of plants by 

 young gardeners whilst learning their business, one would suppose it a thing 

 either altogether unconnected with it, or at least one to which it was 

 a matter of very httle consequence whether they attended or not. Hence 

 it very often happens that a taste for flowers is never cultivated, and notions 

 imbibed in youth are practised to old age, unimproved and profitless ; 

 consequently we find the same dull round of old flowers year by year 

 fringing the shrubberies of the pleasure ground, and too often even the 

 borders of the kitchen garden. This is a deplorable state of things, and calls 

 for immediate remedy. The study and cultivation of flowers and plants 

 generally are, in my opinion, among the most important and interesting 

 branches of the gardener's employment ; and I do not hesitate to say, that 

 nothing would tend so much as a knowledge of these to elevate him in 

 the opinion of his employer. Every gardener who can read and write, (and 

 without a knowledge of these no man ought to be a gardener), should at least 

 be acquainted with the names of plants, their native places, the time of their 

 introduction and blooming, and the proper mode of culture. I need not tell 

 a man possessed of these advantages how far superior he is to one who, on 

 being asked about the names, culture, &c, of plants, is obhged to confess 

 Ins ignorance in the common apology, that he has paid but httle attention to 

 such tilings, having almost exclusively apphed himself to the kitchen garden 

 and forcing department. Such a man will never be fit for anything beyond 



