THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



"The idea of superiority is not extinct. 

 I have heard complaints from builders 

 that we gardeners trespass upon their 

 work, and disfigure it \^ith ourampelop- 

 sis, wistaria, jasmine, roses, and ivy ; 

 but no one outside their fraternity sec- 

 onds the proposition. Has not the 

 Great Architect of the Universe clothed 

 His mountains and rocks with moss, 

 and lichen, and flowers ? And yet with- 

 in a few years an architect has informed 

 us that a garden should be laid out in 

 an equal number of rectangular parts ; 

 that everything therein should be sim- 

 ple, formal, and logical ! and that he 

 should have no more hesitation in ap- 

 plying the scissors to his trees and 

 shrubs with a view to their transforma- 

 tion into pyramids and peacocks, cocked 

 hats and ramping lions, than he should 

 experience in mowing his grass. Should 

 this gentleman secure the sympathy of 

 the public with his rectifications of 

 Nature, it will only remain for ihe Gov- 

 ernment to invite contracts for the fulfil- 

 ment of the Quaker's suggestion that 

 the world should be painted a good, 

 cheap, universal drab." 



"There must be in every garden — 

 The grace of Congruity. There 

 must be unity without uniformity, a 

 pleasing combination not only of sepa- 

 rate parts of the garden, but of the 

 garden itself with the scene around. 

 Every instrument in the great orchestra 

 must be in tune." 



" I have watched with great interest 

 attempts to improve Nature. I remem- 

 ber an under-gardener, who carved 

 flowers with his pocket knife out of 

 turnips, chiefly the ranunculus, the 

 camellia, and the tulip, and colored 

 them with stripes and spots of the most 

 gorgeous hues ; and I recall a day when, 

 passing by the potting shed, in which 

 he was exhibiting his splendid achieve- 

 ments to a friend, I heard him say, 



314 



' They whacks natur', don't they, Dobbs?' 

 And Dobbs replied, ' They whacks her 

 ea-sy.' 



" Congruity means the adaptation of 

 Art to Nature, the conformity of a gar- 

 den with its environs, the study of the 

 soil." 



" 'Et quid quaque ferat regio et quaque 

 recuset.' It means not only the selec 

 tion but the setting of the jewels, not 

 only the painting of the picture, but the 

 placing in the frame." 



" This then should be the primary 

 endeavor to the true gardener, to collect 

 all the most beautiful specimens which 

 he can obtain of trees, and shrubs, and 

 flowers, and to arrange them with all the 

 knowledge which he possesses of their 

 habit, colour, and form, in accordance 

 with the simplicity, the graceful outlines, 

 the charming combinations of the natu- 

 ral world beyond, 



' When order in variety we see, 



And where, though all things differ, all agree.' 



Working under these rules, copying this 

 model, obeying Pope's edict, 



' First follow Nature, and your judgments 



frame, 

 By her just standard, which is still the same,' 



he will make but few mistakes, and these 

 will suggest their own rectification, 

 whereas all the endeavors of wealth and 

 self-conceit to follow their own imagina- 

 tions, without regard to these immutable 

 laws, and to obtain the admiration of 

 their neighbors by the mere costliness 

 of their novelties, or the heterogeneous 

 locations of their plants, inevitably fail. 

 Again and again I have seen such re- 

 sults of lavish expenditure and stolid 

 arrogance as have almost induced oph- 

 thalmia and softening of the brain, with 

 an intense longing for the wings of a 

 dove ; whereas the same eyes have gazed 

 with a delight, which could not tire, in 

 many a garden where the means were 

 scanty, but the love was large.'* 



