Faults in Gardening 



beds less uniformly gay, but stocked with 

 a sufficiency of handsome perennials and 

 flowering shrubs ; and every here and 

 there would be some curious plants like 

 Mullein, Sunflower, Acanthus, Southern- 

 wood, or perhaps some giant Umbellifer, 

 or many other species with lovely blos- 

 soms, but which are of the class now 

 stigmatised as weedy. The choice, of 

 course, would vary with the character of 

 the bed. Everything of this kind, how- 

 ever, our taste is fast driving from us. 

 We banish whatever is not striking in 

 colour and will not conform to our rule. 

 On our side beds, where shrubs are inter- 

 mixed, we look at the neat, compact 

 Thujas and Junipers, the Scarlet Gera- 

 niums and Blue Lobelias, with the purple 

 foliage of the Perilla, amongst which the 

 chance appearances of a Deadly Night- 

 shade or a Physalis (Winter Cherry) 

 would seem like water in a desert. What 

 gardens ought to be is perhaps best seen 

 in those which are specially devoted to 

 botanical purposes. 



But worst of all is the neglect of the 

 early spring plants. Every one begins 

 to value flowers in spring ; we notice 

 them more particularly from their being 

 so few, and they cheer us by their con- 

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