1030 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



733 



The statues of eminent public men 



des promeneurs, the conversation of a party, or 

 individual contemplation. The angles, therefore, 

 must be avoided, by rounding them off\n a large 

 square ; in a small one, by forming the walk into 

 a circle ; and in a small parallelogram, by adopt- 

 ing an oval form. In laying out a large square 

 {jig> 733.), four objects ought to be kept in view. 

 1. Sufficient open space (a), both of lawn and 

 walk, so as the parents, looking from the windows 

 of the houses which surround the square, may not 

 long at a time lose sight of their children : 2. An 

 open walk, exposed to the sun, for winter and 

 spring (b) : 3. A walk shaded by trees, but airy 

 for summer (c) : 4. Resting-places (d) ; and a 

 centrical covered seat and retreat (e), which, be- 

 ing nearly equidistant from every point may be 

 readily gained in case of a sudden shower, &c. 

 are obvious and appropriate decorations for squares 



7320. Russel Square, laid out from a design of Repton in 1810, is one of the most complete in these re- 

 spects in London. It has been objected to as over-planted ; but this is only a piece of vulgar injustice, 

 applied indiscriminately to every rural artist, all of whom, as a matter of course, conclude, that when mag- 

 nitude effects the purposes of number, the superfluous plants will be rooted out. 



7321. Sloane Square is very ingeniously laid out as a botanic garden, by which means the surrounding 

 inhabitants have an easy opportunity of blending recreation with instruction. This plot being a parallelo- 

 gram or long square, and the ground being low, Repton proposed to form it into a winding valley, con- 

 taining a piece of water ; the walks to be winding, the trees grouped, and the whole contrived so as to 

 produce an appearance of nature in the midst of art : but his advice was not complied with. The late poet- 

 laureate, Pye {Essays), purposed to lay out a square, in imitation of a wild overgrown quarry or gravel-pit, 

 and plant it with thorns, hollies, furze, brambles, ferns, &c. This mode he would adopt on account of its 

 originality. 



7322. Edward's Square, Kensington, was laid out, in 1819, in groups and winding walks, in a manner 

 different from most other squares, by Aiglio, an eminent landscape-painter. A small city square might 



laid out in terraces, like the Isola* Bella, or the gardens of Babylon, and the space beneath usefully dis- 

 posed of as vaults for goods, or a cattle- market. 



Subsect. 2. Public Gardens of Instruction. 



7323. Botanic gardens. The primary object of botanic gardens is to exhibit a collec- 

 tion of plants for the improvement of botanical science ; a secondary object to exhibit 

 living specimens of such plants as are useful in medicine, agriculture, and other arts ; 

 and a third is, or ought to be, the acclimating of foreign plants, and their dissemination 

 over the country. In choosing a situation for a botanic garden, the leading object must 

 be proximity to the town, city, or university to which it is to belong ; and the next, if 

 attainable, a variety of surface and soil, to aid the necessary formation of composts and 

 aspects for different plants. In general, however, there is little choice in these respects, it 

 being sufficiently difficult to procure an adequate extent of surface of any kind near 

 large towns. As the leading object or feature in the view of a botanic garden is the 

 range of hot-houses ; and as these must always face the south, it is generally desirable 

 that ground on the north side of the principal public street or road by which it is to be 

 approached, should be preferred to ground on the south side. In the latter case, the 

 hot-houses must be approached from behind, and then the spectator must turn round to 

 look at them, by which their grand effect is lost. The Liverpool and Oxford gardens are 

 in this respect unfortunate ; that of Edinburgh fortunate. 



7324. The extent requisite for a botanic garden depends upon that of the collection intended to be formed ; 

 as well as on the magnitude to which the tree-plants are intended to be grown. A good deal will depend 

 also on whether tender exotics are to be principal or secondary objects of collection, and also on the man- 

 ner of growing the hardy herbaceous plants. An immense collection of herbaceous plants may be included 

 in a small space, if the soil is loamy, rather inclined to moisture, and if the plants are separated from each 

 other in the rows by bricks or thin tiles, which at once completely divides them and stints their growth, so 

 as to admit a great number being planted on the same space. The extent of the Chelsea garden is little 

 more than three acres ; that of the Liverpool garden is five acres; and in both are extensive collections. 

 Messrs. Loddiges have above a thousand species of herbaceous plants, which they keep constantly in small 

 pots, set on beds of scoria. These occupy very little space, and the plants thrive well. Of course the larger- 

 growing kinds are excluded. 



7325. The form of a botanic garden is a matter of very little consequence : where the extent is small, a 

 square or parallelogram may undoubtedly be made to contain most plants ; but where it exceeds four or 

 five acres, any form will answer ; and, indeed, if there is a sufficient quantity of ground, the more irre- 

 gular the form, so much the more variety will there be in the circumferential walks of the garden. The 

 Chelsea, Cambridge, Oxford, and Edinburgh gardens, are square, or nearly so ; those at Liverpool, Glas- 

 gow, Hull, and the Dublin Society's garden, are irregular. The two latter both in outline and surface. 

 The most irregular botanic gardens, both as to form and surface, with which we are acquainted, are 

 those of Koningsberg and Warsaw. A small rill runs through the former, with the most irregular 

 wavy banks on each side ; and the latter is on the steep, broken, and almost inaccessible banks of the 

 Vistula. 



7326. In laying out the area of a botanic garden, the objects already mentioned, and 

 various others, must be kept in view. If it be merely desired to have a general collec- 

 tion, then a surrounding border for the trees and shrubs ; internal compartments for the 



