Royal Water-lily { Victoria regia). 



THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 



"TJ* LOWERS have in all ages been cultivated by 

 persons of leisure and taste, for the beauty 

 and variety of their forms, colours, and fragrance. 

 While generally healthful and exhilarating, from 

 being pursued in the open air, flower-culture is 

 justly reckoned a pure and harmless recreation, 

 which, by leading to the tranquil contemplation 

 of natural beauty, and diverting the mind from 

 gross worldly occupations, has a positively moral, 

 and therefore highly beneficial tendency. Flower- 

 gardening affords the ready means of studying 

 vegetable forms, which, were they to be sought 

 in the fields and woods, would necessitate a course 

 of botanical study which few artists have the 

 leisure or inclination to adopt. It has also the 

 advantage of being alike open to the pursuit of 

 high and low, the peasant and the peer, the over- 

 toiled man of business and the industrious artisan. 

 It may be followed with equal enjoyment by both 

 sexes, and, as is well known, on every imaginable 

 scale, from that of a single flower-pot or tiny 

 front-plot, to the princely conservatory and 

 exquisitely varied parterre. 



The natural grace, simplicity, and attractive 

 colouring of flowers have afforded endless themes 

 to moralists and poets ; and volumes have been 

 penned to shew how many associations of feeling, 

 simple and sublime, these beauteous objects are 

 calculated to excite. On this field we cannot 

 afford to expatiate, and therefore proceed at once 

 36 



to the more practical object of shewing how the 

 lovers of flowers may rear them for themselves. 



MODES OF LAYING OUT FLOWER-GARDENS 

 FRONT-PLOTS BOWERS. 



Flowers are cultivated in the borders and 

 parterres of gardens of a mixed kind along with 

 kitchen vegetables and fruits ; and this may be 

 said to be the general plan in those grounds of 

 limited space belonging to persons of moderate 

 means. Many, however, cultivate flowers in 

 ' flower-gardens ' exclusively appropriated to them, 

 and also in isolated clumps for the decoration of 

 lawns. The method of culture is the same in all 

 cases, and therefore it is unnecessary to enter into 

 particulars with reference to the various sizes and 

 kinds of gardens in which flowers may be grown. 



The directions given in the previous sheet on 

 the laying out, shelter, and exposure of kitchen- 

 gardens, apply also to flower-gardens. The soil 

 should be rich and dry, the exposure full and 

 uninterrupted towards the sun, so that a free air 

 may play over the ground ; and means should be 

 at hand for providing needful supplies of water. 



If the garden is seen from a parlour-window, as 

 is often the case, the plan most agreeable is to 

 lay out the foreground as a patch of well-shaven 

 grass, which is fresh both winter and summer ; 

 on its further side there may be a semicircular 



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