SEEDLINGS. 



79 



kinds. Such ground will not require mowing more 

 than twice or thrice in the year, and will afford 

 much pleasure, without much labour and expense. 

 If there is a little damp nook or dell, with rock- 

 work and water at command, let it by all means 

 be made a fernery, for which Mr. Newman's book 

 will supply plenty of materials. 



But we are straying too far from our immediate 

 subject of flower-gardens and flowers, and with a 

 few more remarks upon the latter we must bring 

 this dissertation to a close : otherwise we should 

 have something to say of the unique beauties of 

 Eedleaf, and the splendid Italian garden lately de- 

 signed at Trentham by the genius of Mr. Barry ; 

 something more too of the gorgeous new importations 

 which every day is now bringing, some for the first 

 time, into blossom. We are even promised new 

 varieties of orchideous plants from Mr. Eollisson's 

 experiments in raising seedlings for the first time 

 in this country. 



To produce new seedling varieties of one's own, 

 by hybridizing and other mysteries of the priests of 

 Flora, is indeed the highest pleasure and the deepest 

 esotericism of the art. The impregnating them is 

 to ventiire within the very secrets of creation, and 

 the naming them carries us back to one of the highest 

 privileges of our first parents. The offspring be- 

 comes our own c^yov ; which, according to Aristotle, 

 claims the highest degree of our love. We should 

 feel that, in leaving them, we were leaving friends, 

 and address them in the words of Eve, 



