128 THE VILLA GARDENER. 



Italy ; or with wallflowers and stocks, which are also verj'much prized there; 

 or with eveigreen saxifragas, which are common on the Italian alps. Or 

 these beds might be wholly planted with the indigenous bulbs of Italy, which 

 include some sorts of tulips, narcissi, crocuses, scilla, &c., interspersed with 

 Neapolitan violets at regular distances. The beds n will have the best effect 

 relatively to the other beds, and to the trees and shrubs, if planted with China 

 roses, which were first improved by cross impregnation in the Royal Gardens at 

 INIonza. At the roots of the deciduous shrubs, in the groups on the lawn, may 

 be planted some of the hardier bulbs of Italy, along with primroses, violets, 

 &c., to come up through the grass ; and, more especially, the colchicum and 

 the Cyclamen europaeum, which are highly characteristic of Italian scenery in 

 autumn, as the crocus, the .S'cilla italica, and the poet's narcissus are in spring. 



195. The Italian terrace and the green-house. — For ornamenting these in 

 sunnner, we would cultivate, in a green-house or orangery in the reserve 

 garden, some orange trees, oleanders, pomegranates, olives, myrtles, and 

 jasmines, in large pots or boxes, to place on the terrace and in the green- 

 house about the middle of May. For training against the walls of the terrace in 

 the autumn, we would recommend a collection of chrysanthemums to be kept 

 in pots in the reserve ground till the beginning or middle of August, when 

 they may be brought out, and the more delicate and late-flowering kinds 

 placed against the walls of tbe house within the terrace, and the other kinds 

 placed against the walls all round the house ; some of the most select being 

 arranged in the plant lobby. The kinds may either be chosen from the old 

 Chinese varieties, of which there are above thirty in cultivation in the nur-- 

 series, or from the new British varieties, which have been raised from seed 

 in Jersey and other places. 



196. The back garden may either be wholly or in part under turf, and 

 varied by trees and shrubs planted for picturesque effect, as in the front 

 garden ; or, it may be in part laid out in beds for culinary vegetables, as in 

 fig. 34., p. 71. The walls should, we think, either be covered with ivy, or 

 with evergreen and deciduous shrubs, and especially the flowering and 

 odoriferous kinds. Among these, and also among the trees and shrubs 

 planted in the front garden, may be some dwarf and standard fruit trees, of 

 the more hardy free-bearing kinds; such as the Hawthorndcn apple, the 

 glout morceau pear, tlie Orleans and magnum bonum plums, the morello 

 cherry, the green gage and Warrington gooseberries, Wilmot's red currant, 

 the champagne or striped currant, the Dutch white currant, the Naples bLick 

 currant, and the cane and Antwerp raspberries. Even if there are no beds 

 for culinary crops, there may still be a few circular beds, distributed in open 

 places, for a few strawberries of different kinds ; or the strawben-ies may h» 

 grown on a cone of earth faced on every side with bricks, flints, or stones, 

 the strawberries being placed in the joints between them. By such an 

 arrangement, the strawberries are obtained a week or a fortnight earlier than 

 they would be on flat beds, particularly on the south side of the cone. The 

 advantages of this mode of growing strawberries are, that the fruit may be 

 gathered without stooping ; it is certain of being always clean ; and, if water 

 be supplied liberally during the flowering and swelling seasons, it will attain 

 a large size. The alpine, or common wood strawberry, ti-eated in this manner, 

 and supplied with water (which can be done by pouring it into an opening made 

 on purpose in the apex of the cone), will cont nuc in bearing all the summer. 



