50 THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



On the minor decorations of the garden, such as 

 rock- work, moss-houses, and rustic seats, &c., Mrs. 

 Loudon gives some very good hints, though we 

 should be sorry to set up on our lawn the specimen 

 baskets which embellish pp. 357 and 358 ; but, in 

 truth, these things, contrary to the common rule, 

 usually look better in reality than on paper. Where 

 beds of irregular wavy lines are required to be made 

 we have found nothing better than a good thick 

 rope, which, thrown at random on the ground, will, 

 with a little adjustment, give a bold and natural out- 

 line that it would be difficult to work out otherwise 

 in tenfold the time. 



Mrs. Loudon's ' Ladies' Companion to the Flower 

 Garden,' is in alphabetical arrangement, and exclu- 

 sively devoted to flowers. In all our references to 

 this book for practical purposes and for the present 

 paper, we have scarcely once been disappointed. 

 Though chiefly a book of reference, it is written 

 in so easy a style and so perfectly free from pedantry, 

 that, open it at what page we may, there is some- 

 thing to instruct, interest, and amuse. The practi- 

 cal directions are necessarily very compressed, but 

 nothing of importance seems omitted. The greatest 

 " Ignorama " * in flowers could not have this volume 

 on her table long without having every doubt and 

 difficulty removed. We know of no book of the 

 kind so likely to spread a knowledge of, and taste 



* So, appropriately enough, signs herself a fair correspondent of 

 one of our gardening Journals. We think this quite equal to Mr. 

 Hume's "Omuibt." 



