554 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



a variety in the grounds and an impression of greater ex- 

 tent than there really is. 



Mr. Loudon was desired to furnish directions for the 

 future management of the Arboretum, which he did, some 

 of which I will extract as being applicable and useful in 

 many other situations : — 



" All the ground not covered by trees or shrubs, I have 

 directed to be laid d^wn in grass and kept closely mown ; 

 but round each tree and shrub forming the collection I 

 have preserved a circular space, ranging from three to five 

 feet in diameter, which with the hills in the centre, compris- 

 ino- one third of the width of the circle, and on which the 

 plant is placed, is not sown in grass, but is always to be kept 

 (ckar of weeds. The use of this circle and little hill is to 

 prevent the grass from injuring the roots of the trees while 

 young, and to admit of the larger roots showing themselves 

 above the surface, when they ramify from the stem as before 

 mentioned- 



" It has been found since the garden was completed, that 

 these little hills have served as an effectual preservation of 

 the plants ; because, notwithstanding the many thousands of 

 persons that visited the garden during the three days of the 

 .ceremony of the opening, not a single plant was injured. 



" What I consider to be the highest order consists in the 

 following particulars : — The walks should be at all times per- 

 fectly dry, smooth, firm, free from weeds, wormcasts, or 

 other extraneous matters, and with a gravel of good color ; 

 the turf equal in thickness, free from all broad-leaved plants, 

 except clover, closely mown, smooth, firm, dry, and every- 

 where without wormcasts, mole-hills, ant-hills, dead leaves 

 of trees, bits of paper, or any other extraneous matters which 

 may be blown about, or left on it by visitors ; the flower 

 (warden perfectly free from weeds, and every bed filled with 

 plants in a healthy state, and the beds well covered with 

 flowers, the vases filled with flowers, in the manner above 

 described, from the middle of May till October j the flowers 

 being in pots, and either of greenhouse or hardy kinds, 

 named on a card tied to the narrow part of the vase, and 



