ON LAYING OUT THE FLOWER GARDEN. 15 



and rockery ; and if water can be connected, it always gives 

 a good effect. All such appendages, I recommend to be con- 

 structed in as natural a manner as possible. 



The arbors should be covered with vines and creepers, and 

 their form not be discovered until the person who is desirous 

 to rest, after viewing the flowers in the other departments, 

 happens to stroll into them by an easy walk: all such places 

 should be constructed in the shade, for retirement, and not on 

 a rocky eminence, under the influence of the burning sun, 

 unless a fine landscape is to be seen from them, and then an 

 observatory is more proper. 



In many cases, the flower garden will have a pleasing ap- 

 pearance, when various figures are cut in a well kept grass 

 plat, where ease should invariably be attended to. 



Many improvements of this kind may be made with a 

 trifling expense, on large grass plats, especially in front of 

 country residences, by the road side, by making a few judi- 

 cious figures, and planting them with separate families of 

 plants. A dozen varieties of any of the pretty kinds of 

 monthly roses, are fine specimens for this mode of ornament- 

 ing, which will continue in flower during the season ; several 

 families of perennial herbaceous plants, as the beautiful genus 

 of Phlox, Penstemons, and the like, are also desirable plants for 

 this purpose ; and to these may be added, the hardy bulbous 

 rooted plants, as the tulip, the hyacinth, and lilies, which are 

 too much neglected in the flower garden, for early flowering 

 plants. When the bulbs have done flowering, these beds 

 may be judiciously planted with annual flowers, to flower in 

 the fall, as the pretty kinds of balsam, Petunia Phlox Drum- 

 mondii, dwarf larkspur, or any pretty kinds. For a selection 

 of the best adapted plants for this purpose, I refer the reader 

 to the Descriptive List of the different varieties of plants 

 which will be found under their different heads. 



In laying out flower gardens, great care should always be 

 taken, that there is a regular proportion of the beds and walks 

 in the different departments ; for it will have a bad effect if 



