lOO Notes and Gleanings. 



all-pervading taste for flowers. In many large cities, gardens or grounds, with 

 ^rass, trees, and shrubery, with walks, and sometimes drives, are provided for 

 the public, — sometimes by the cities themselves, and then o^Den and free to all ; 

 sometimes laid out and maintained by contribution from individuals ; and, again, 

 sometimes the result of speculation, with a view to induce the purchase of ad- 

 joining lands. But, in all cases, these garfens are ornamented with beds of 

 flowers, and borders of flowering-shrubs. So, too, where houses of entertain- 

 ment, and places of public resort for amusement and recreation, are maintained 

 with a view to pecuniary considerations, it is not uncommon to have a fine garden 

 attached to them ; and as, in all these cases, the planting of these gardens with 

 flowers, and the keeping of them in high order, as is the case, involves a very con- 

 siderable expense, it is fair to suppose this is done in answer to the requirements 

 of the public taste, and helps to prove its existence. One of the finest, proba- 

 bly the finest, of these places of public entertainment (Cremorne), has, as I have 

 .seen it stated, a garden, brilliant with flowers, of twenty-two acres in extent, 

 attached to it, kept in as perfect order as that of the Horticultural Society ; that 

 to roll the walks, mow the lawns, and dress the flower-beds, keeps employed 

 fifteen gardeners. The parks of London, too large to be called gardens, yet 

 somewhat of that character, with walks, and some of them with rides and drives, 

 through their smooth, soft grass, ornamented with flowering-shrubs, and beds 

 of gay flowers, under the shade of fine trees, are, '• in the season," when 

 thronged with brilliant equipages, horsemen, and persons on foot, among the 

 most gay and brilliant scenes of the great metropolis. 



Among the flowering trees and shrubs, then in bloom, that 1 noticed most 

 frequently in England in May, were the horse-chestnut, the lilacs of different 

 kinds, the hawthorns, and laburnums. There were, of course, others, tliat, as I 

 made no memoranda, I cannot now recall. The horse-chestnuts were fine trees, 

 either planted singly or in avenues. As groves by themselves, without other 

 trees, they do not impress me as favorably. When in flower, they are very hand- 

 some; and the scarlet or red varieties make an exceedingly brilliant show. The 

 same remarks are applicable to the crimson-flowering hawthorns. Trained as 

 trees on a single stem, with a symmetrical-shaped head, in full flower, they are 

 very beautiful. I remember a row of hawthorns in Prince's Park, Liverpool, 

 that might be described as trees, having trunks si.x or eight inches in diameter, 

 with proportionately large, rounded heads, then covered with blossoms that were 

 exceedingly fine, — the finest that I had ever seen. The lilacs, it seems to me, are 

 not apt to have justice done them, like many other things that are common. Be- 

 cause they are common, they hardly receive the attention they deserve. Like 

 the crimson pasony, that, if it were rare, would be considered a floral gem, yet, 

 because it is seen everywhere, often in unsightly places, is held of little v.ilue ; 

 so the common lilac is so often met with in out-of-the-way places, perhaps some 

 corner amidst rubbish of all kinds, with perhaps its branches broken and browsed 

 upon by cattle, that none of its varieties seem to be generally held in much 

 esteem. Yet to me the lilacs are beautiful shrubs ; and some of them, especially 

 the Persian varieties, with their slender, drooping branches, are very graceful. 

 When planted in a suitable place, and at all cared for, covered with blossoms, 



