SOIL. 249 



to possess the principal characters of a Winter Garden, 

 without the formality of its name and purpose. In the 

 endless variety of situations, it is not difficult to ima- 

 gine a sloping bank, for instance, facing the sun, with 

 a long walk skirting its base, the lower side of which 

 might be adorned with a border or narrow parterre 

 planted with arbutus and periwinkle, whilst the slope 

 is covered with the higher evergreens, and the summit 

 of -the acclivity is crowned with groups of deciduous 

 trees, interrupted by a few straggling firs, through which 

 the wind, unfelt below, might sigh its melancholy music. 

 Again, a site for the Spring Garden, which need not 

 be of very great extent, may be found in the vicinity of 

 the green-house or conservatory, with which it is natu- 

 rally allied. 



Soil. — A variety of soils is required in the flower 

 garden, to -sjiit the very different kinds of plants that 

 fall to be cultiva;ted. To florists' flowers particular 

 compounds are assigned, and these shall be mentioned 

 when treating of the flowers themselves. American 

 plants require a peaty earth, varying from boggy peat 

 to almost pure sand. Alluvial peat, that is, boggy 

 earth which has been washed away and incorporated 

 with white sand, is to be preferred : peat, cut from its 

 natural bed and only partially decomposed, is of no 

 value at all, or rather is positively prejudicial to plants. 

 In collecting soil from the surface of a muir, it is proper 

 to take no more than the upper turf or sod, with the 

 peat adhering to it, and only from the driest parts of 

 the muir, where particles of white sand abound, and 

 where, besides the common heath, fescue-grasses occur. 

 Where this kind of muir-soil cannot be procured, a good 

 substitute is found in vegetable mould, that is, decayed 

 99 



