in Masses of one Species. 411 



in my opinion, is almost always bad : there is as much glare 

 and want of relief in a great bed of roses, geraniums, irises, 

 &c, as in the old plan of indiscriminate mixture of small 

 patches of many species ; and with less variety. A collection 

 of mere roses is doubtless highly interesting when judiciously 

 arranged by a mixture of tall and low growing species of 

 various tints of colour, and the whole set off by the dark 

 green of trees and shrubs in the background, as in the superb 

 collection of the King of Prussia *, at his delightful country 

 palace on the Pfauen Insel (Peacock Island), near Potsdam, 

 which does such credit to his head gardener, M. Fintelmann, 

 and which I had the high gratification of seeing in full splen- 

 dour in July last : but a clump solely of the China or any 

 other kind of rose, as is often seen in the midst of a grass 

 plot, seems to me as glaring as would be a nosegay wholly of 

 roses ; and in the case of irises, &c, there is the further great 

 objection, that a week's display in spring is purchased with 

 months of subsequent barrenness and deformity. Two points 

 seem clearly required in a flower clump : 1st, that it should 

 present a succession of flowers ; and, 2dly, that these should 

 be contrasted and relieved by a due intermixture of green, just 

 as the native taste of the veriest peasant tells him is requisite 

 in the bouquet which he offers his mistress. On this principle 

 were formed the flower clumps in the pleasure-grounds at 

 Wilhelmshohe, the superb country residence of the Elector 

 of Hesse-Cassel, which I saw last June, and the beautiful 

 effect of which it was impossible not to admire. The centre 

 of each was occupied by tall-growing plants, not yet in flower, 

 and other portions of the surface by smaller ones, and between 

 these were planted double stocks, purple, scarlet, and white, 



* One feature of this collection, which was purchased by the King of 

 Prussia, from the banker (or his heirs) who originally made it, for (if I 

 recollect right) 8000 dollars (1200/.), deserves mention. The tree roses 

 (those grafted on tall stems) were not planted as single and detached trees, 

 as they are so often seen, when they can claim no other merit than the 

 childish singularity of looking like rose-bushes stuck on the end of long 

 sticks, but were intermixed with the rest, then* stems being concealed by 

 other tall-growing kinds, and thus increasing the variety of outline of the 

 whole mass ; the only rational purpose to which these trees can be 

 applied. Pfauen Insel more resembles an English park than any other 

 ornamented place I have seen on the Continent, both as to its trees, many 

 of which are very fine, and its turf, which, at the hot season, when I saw 

 it, had all the verdant freshness of spring. To keep it, however, in this 

 state, as the soil^s very sandy, requires constant irrigation, for which pur- 

 pose, and for watering the whole, not less than 8000 cubic feet of water are 

 in summer daily raised by a steam-engine, and, after falling from a hand- 

 some fountain, are distributed to every part of the park and pleasure- 

 grounds, which are kept in admirable order, and reflect the highest credit on 

 M. Fintelmann. 



