14 OBSERVATIONS ON THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



Neatness should be the prevailing characteristic of a flower 

 garden, which should be so situated as to form an ornamental 

 appendage to the house ; and, where circumstances will admit, 

 placed before the windows exposed to a southern or south- 

 eastern aspect. The principle on which it is laid out, ought to 

 be that of exhibiting a variety of colour and form, so blended 

 as to produce one beautiful whole. In a small flower garden, 

 viewed from the windows of a house, this effect is best pro- 

 duced by beds, or borders, formed side by side, and parallel 

 to the windows whence they are seen, as in that j^osition the 

 colours show to the best advantage. In a retired part of the 

 garden, a rustic seat may be formed, over and around which 

 grape vines, or honeysuckles, and other sweet and ornamental 

 creepers and climbers, may be trained on trellises, which will 

 afford a pleasant rural retreat. 



In extensive pleasure grounds a rockery, formed of rough 

 stone, and rich light soil, may be erected in imitation of a 

 mountain, on which may be cultivated various j^lants natives 

 of mountainous districts, and such indigenous j^lants as are 

 calculated for the situation ; also herbaceous plants, procum- 

 bent and trailing, such as Mesembryanthemums, Climbing 

 Cordydalis, the various species of Silene or Catch Fly, Gyp- 

 sophila, Lotus, Ricota or Syrian Honesty, Godetia, &c. These 

 being interspersed with dwarf ])lants of different species, as 

 Mountain Lychnis, Violets, Daisies, &c., and so arranged as 

 to cover a great proportion of the rocky surface, must ne- 

 cessarily produce a very pleasing effect. 



Although the greatest display is produced by a general 

 flower garden, that is, by cultivating such a variety in one 

 bed or border as will insure an almost constant blooming ; yet 

 bulbous rooted plants, though essential to the perfection of the 

 flower garden, lose something of their peculiar beauty when 

 not cultivated by themselves. The extensive variety of bul- 

 bous roots furnishes means for the formation of a garden, 

 the beauty of which, arising from an intei mixture of every 

 variety of foim and colour, would well repay the trouble of 



