THE 



AMERICAN FLOWER GARDEN 

 DIRECTORY. 



ON LAYING OUT A FLOWER GARDEN. 



THE Flower Garden is chiefly devoted to the cultivation 

 of showy flowering plants, shrubs and trees, either natives 

 of this country or those of a foreign clime : it is a refined 

 appendage to a country seat, "suburban" villa, or city re- 

 sidence ; every age has had its principles of taste, and 

 every country its system of gardening. Our limits do not 

 permit us to enter minutely into the details of any of these 

 systems, but a few hints may not be out of place to those 

 whose design is the laying out or improvement of the gar- 

 den. The Italian style is characterized by broad terraces 

 and parallele walks, having the delightful shade and agree- 

 able fragrance of the orange and the myrtle. Terraces may 

 be advantageously adopted to surmount steep declivities ; 

 and, if judiciously laid out, would convert a sterile bank 

 into a beautiful promenade, or choice flower garden. 



The French partially adopt the above system, interspers- 

 ing it with parterres and figures of statuary work of every 

 character and description. When such is well designed 

 and neatly executed, it has a lively and interesting effect ; 

 but now the refined taste says these vagaries are too fan- 

 tastic, and entirely out of place. A late writer says of 

 Dutch gardening, that it " is rectangular formality :" they 

 take great pride in trimming their trees of yew, holly, and 

 other evergreens, into every variety of form, such as mops, 

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