THE 



AMERICAN FLOWER GARDEN 

 DIRECTORY. 



ON LAYING OUT A FLOWER aARDEN. 



The Flower Garden is chiefly devoted to the cultivation of 

 showy flowering plants, shrubs, and trees, either natives of 

 this country or those of a foreign clime : it is a refined ap- 

 pendage to a country seat, "suburban'^ villa, or city resi- 

 dence ; every age has had its principles of taste, and every 

 country its system of gardening. Our limits do not permife 

 us to enter minutely into the details of any of these sys- 

 tems; but a few hints may not be out of place to those whose 

 design is the laying out or improvement of the garden. 

 The Italian style is characterized by broad terraces and parol- 

 Uh walks, having the delightful shade and agreeable fra- 

 grance of the orange and the myrtle. Terraces may be ad- 

 vantageously adopted to surmount steep declivities; and, if 

 judiciously laid out, would convert a sterile bank into » 

 beautiful promenade, or choice flower garden. 



The French partially adopt the above system, interspers- 

 ing it with parterres and figures of statuary work of every 

 character and description. When such is well designed and 

 neatly executed, it has a lively and interesting efifect ; but 

 now the refined taste says these vagaries are too fantastic, 

 and entirely out of place. A late writer says of Dutch gar- 

 dening, that it ^'is rectangular formality." they take great 

 pride in trimming their trees of yew, holly, and other ever- 

 2 



