CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



border ; then a walk ; and next parterres of such 

 form and size as will suit the extent of the ground. 

 If the garden contain kitchen vegetables, they 

 should be out of sight of the windows of the 

 dwelling-house, or at least not brought osten- 

 tatiously forward. ' It is more difficult,' says the 

 author of the Florist's Manual, ' than may at first 

 appear, to plan, even upon a small scale, such a 

 piece of ground ; nor, perhaps, would any but an 

 experienced scientific eye be aware of the diffi- 

 culties to be encountered in the disposal of a few 

 shaped borders interspersed with turf. The nicety 

 consists in arranging the different parts so as to 

 form a connected glow of colour ; to effect which, 

 it will be necessary to place the borders in such 

 a manner that, when viewed from the windows 

 of the house, or from the principal entrance into 

 the garden, one border shall not intercept the 

 beauties of another ; nor, in avoiding that error, 

 produce one still greater that of vacancies 

 betwixt the borders forming small avenues, by 

 which the whole is separated into broken parts, 

 and the general effect lost. Another point to be 

 attended to is, the just proportion of green turf, 

 which, without nice observation, will be too much 

 or too little for the colour with which it is blended ; 

 and, lastly, the breadth of the flower-borders 

 should not be greater than what will place the 

 plants within reach of the gardener's arm without 

 the necessity of treading upon the soil, the mark 

 of footsteps being a deformity wherever it appears 

 among flowers.' 



Whether all the flowers of a kind such, for 

 instance, as violets, hyacinths, &c. should be 

 cultivated together in beds, or interspersed and 

 mingled with others, is a matter for taste to decide. 

 Dr Neill judiciously observed, on the choice of 

 flowers for borders : ' The plants are arranged in 

 mingled flower-borders, partly according to their 

 size, and partly according to their colour. The 

 tallest are planted in the back part, those of 

 middling size occupy the centre, and those of 

 humble growth are placed in front. The beauty 

 of a flower-border, when in bloom, depends very 

 much on the tasteful disposition of the plants in 

 regard to colour. By intermingling plants which 

 grow in succession, the beauty of the border may 

 be prolonged. In a botanic garden, the same 

 plant cannot be repeated in the same border ; but 

 in the common flower-garden, a plant, if deemed 

 ornamental, may be often repeated with the best 

 effect ; nothing can be finer, for example, than to 

 see many plants of double scarlet lychnis, double 

 sweet-william, or double purple jacobaea.' The 

 practice of growing flowers in beds of one kind 

 has of late years, however, become very prevalent, 

 and has this advantage, that it gives bolder masses 

 of colour, and enables the florist to cultivate in 

 the open ground, and with the best effect, many 

 tender plants that would be lost in a mixed 

 border. 



The Dutch, who are among the best flower- 

 gardeners in the world, have lately begun to copy 

 the English in ornamenting turf-lawns with plots 

 of various kinds of flowers ; but in all their large 

 and regular gardens, they still dispose each kind 

 of flowers by themselves. ' We ridicule this plan,' 

 says Hogg, in his Treatise on Flowers, ' because 

 it exhibits too great a sameness and formality ; 

 like a nosegay that is composed of one sort of 

 flowers only, however sweet and beautiful they 



562 



may be, they lose the power to please, because 

 they want variety. It must undoubtedly be 

 acknowledged that a parterre, no matter in what 

 form whether circular or square, elliptical or 

 oblong where all the shrubs, plants, and flowers 

 in it, like the flowers in a tastefully arranged 

 bouquet, are variously disposed in neat and regu- 

 lated order, is a delightful spectacle, and worthy 

 of general imitation. Yet still, in some particular 

 cases, I am disposed to copy the Dutchman ; and 

 I would have my bed of hyacinths distinct, my 

 anemones, my ranunculuses, my pinks, my carna- 

 tions distinct, and even my beds of hollyhocks, 

 double blue violets, and dwarf larkspurs distinct, 

 to say nothing of different sorts of roses. Inde- 

 pendently of the less trouble you have in cultivat- 

 ing them when kept separate, you have beauty in 

 masses, and you have likewise their fragrance and 

 perfume so concentrated, that they are not lost 

 in air, but powerfully inhaled when you approach 

 them.' 



As to front-plots in towns and suburbs, if they 

 be limited to a few square yards, it will be better 

 not to attempt the growth of flowers at all, but to 

 lay them down in greensward, if it will grow, or 

 clean gravel, with perhaps a selection of the finer 

 varieties of ivy, jasmines, and cotoniasters on the 

 side-walls or railings ; and elsewhere a variegated 

 holly, box-tree, laurel, aucuba, sweet-brier, rose, 

 or some other hardy shrub, to enliven them. 

 Nothing, however, can be more wretched than a 

 few sickly plants struggling for a miserable exist- 

 ence amid the dust and smoke of a town ; and a 

 person of good taste will never attempt the growth 

 of flowers unless he can command the requisite 

 amount of air and sunshine. In laying out little 

 front-plots of this description, circular, oval, 

 oblong, and other simple forms should be pre- 

 ferred ; for nothing looks more ridiculous than the 

 imitation of labyrinths and intricate designs on so 

 small a scale. A few plain forms, in keeping with 

 the front of the building and size of the plot, may 

 produce elegance ; but intricate divisions, with 

 lines of gravel between, scarcely broad enough for 

 a human foot, are toyish and trifling in the 

 extreme. 



An error not uncommon in deciding what 

 flowers shall be planted, is to select numbers 

 merely for their rarity or novelty, without reference 

 to what will be their appearance when in bloom. 

 Unless for botanical illustration, make a choice ot 

 flowers on three principles those that will thrive 

 in the situations assigned to them ; those which 

 will be beautiful when in bloom or leaf, although 

 common ; and those which will bloom or produce 

 effective foliage at the particular seasons required, 

 to insure a succession of varied beauty throughout 

 the year. 



Bowers and rustic seats often form a pleasant 

 feature in connection with the flower-garden. The 

 forms of these are so numerous, that there is 

 ample scope for choice ; but there is one mode 

 of forming a bower so natural in character, as to 

 be deserving of special notice that of cutting 

 over old hard-wood trees at suitable heights for 

 sitting upon, and allowing their young coppice 

 shoots to grow up around, as illustrated by the 

 accompanying sketches. Fig. i shews the stump of 

 a tree, with the young branches growing up round 

 it ; and fig. 2 illustrates the fashion in which these 

 branches may be made to form an elegant canopy ; 



