90 INTERIOR ARRANGEMENTS. 



tical gardeners and nurserymen, and, from the cool nature of 

 that material, deserves to be more extensively followed in orna- 

 mental green-houses in this country. 



The irregular method of laying out the interior of conservato- 

 ries, which promises to subvert the formal and monotonous 

 arrangements of the old school, is one of the greatest steps 

 towards a higher and more natural taste of artificial gardening 

 than any other that has taken place in this department of the 

 art for the last fifty years, inasmuch as it can be carried out 

 with equal advantage on a large, as well as on a small, scale ; 

 and where this method is applied to a large structure, i. e., 

 a structure covering a large area of ground, it necessarily leads 

 to the adoption of interior arrangements, as far surpassing the 

 old method in beauty and effect as it does in respect to econ- 

 omy, convenience, and comfort. 



When we visit a conservatory lately erected, and see it to be 

 a perfect fac simile of others that had been erected a century 

 before, there is positively nothing to strike us with admiration, 

 except, perhaps, the character of its architecture. When we 

 see, in the costly erection before us, the exact image of conser- 

 vatories everywhere else, the object loses one half of the charms 

 of novelty and interest. It is, in fact, in the endless variety and 

 intrinsic beauty of which they easily admit, that their chief 

 fascination rests. This is the case with all other objects of art ; 

 with private mansions, for instance. How monotonous and tire- 

 some would a country or suburb be, were every mansion and 

 dwelling an exact copy of the other ! And why should it be so 

 with erections for the growth of plants ? Why should these, 

 which are, to a certain extent, invested with the charm of rarity, 

 be deprived of the charm of variety ? Why should there not 

 be groves, and lakes, and irregular flower beds, and rocks, and 

 aquariums, and caverns, and jets, and waterfalls within as well 

 as without? In the former case, their beauties would be avail- 

 able, either for recreation, admiration, or study, at all seasons ; 

 in the latter, the fickleness and vicissitudes of our climate fre- 

 quently prevent the enjoyment of either. 



The finest illustration of this system with which we are 

 acquainted, is in the beautiful conservatory of the Royal 



