Flowers and Gardens 



days to which we refer had little idea of 

 producing pleasing and agreeable effects 

 by means of masses of colour either har- 

 moniously or contrastedly arranged. Their 

 great aim was to possess a collection of 

 species and genera, without much regard 

 to the beauty of individuals, or the effect 

 which they were capable of producing." 

 ("Book of the Garden," vol. ii. p. 815.) 

 Now I quite admit that the older system 

 may have been a little at fault in the 

 respects here mentioned, but we of the 

 present day are running to exactly the 

 opposite extreme. And whilst the old 

 faults were of a purely negative kind, 

 which did little if any mischief, the faults 

 of our modern system are eminently cal- 

 culated to vitiate the public taste. 



Has any of our readers, gifted with real 

 love for flowers, ever walked through one 

 of those older gardens, and observed the 

 wide difference in its effect? I am not 

 here speaking necessarily of the grounds 

 of a mansion, but merely of such a garden 

 as might often be found, some twenty 

 years ago, attached to any good-sized 

 house in a country town or village. Or 

 even a little cottage plot of the kind so 

 beautifully described by Clare will, to 

 some extent, illustrate my meaning : 



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