68 THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



Adonis, and the orchards of the Hesperides ? Where 

 did they dream that heaven should be but in the 

 pleasant garden of Elysium ? Whither doe all men 

 walke for their honest recreation but thither where 

 the earth hath most beneficially painted her face 

 with flourishing colours ? And what season of the 

 yeare more longed for than the spring, whose gentle 

 breath enticeth forth the kindly sweets, and makes 

 them yield their fragrant smells ?" 



And what country, we may add, so suited, and 

 climate so attempered, to yield the full enjoyment 

 of the pleasures and blessings of a garden, as our 

 own? Everybody knows the remark of Charles II. , 

 first promulgated by Sir W. Temple, "that there 

 were more days in the year in which one could enjoy 

 oneself in the open air in England than in any other 

 portion of the known world." This, which contains 

 so complete an answer to the weather-grumblers of 

 our island, bears also along with it a most encourag- 

 ing truth to those " who love to live in gardens." 

 There is no country that offers the like advantages 

 to horticulture. Perhaps there is not one plant in 

 the wide world wholly incapable of being cultivated 

 in England. The mosses and lichens dragged from 

 under the snows of Iceland, and the tenderest creep- 

 ers of the tropical jungles, are alike subject to the 

 art of the British gardener. Artificial heat and 

 cold, by the due application of steam and manure, 

 sun and shade, hot and cold water, and even ice 

 mattings, flues in every variety of pit, frame, con- 

 servative wall, conservatory, greenhouse, hothouse, 



