Arrangement of Plants in a Flawer-Garden. 301 



grounds ; as the stems are, of course, brittle, and require care 

 in raking the borders. In other respects, they are perfectly 

 durable, in all weathers, never alter in appearance, and nothing 

 can be more neat. 



If any of your readers can suggest any composition for mark- 

 ing of greater fluidity, which would be permanent on exposure 

 to weather, and which could be effaced at pleasure, I think 

 this kind of tally, for ornamental gardens, would be perfect. 



The Querns, March, 1837. 



Art. VI. On a proper Arrangement of Plants, both as to their Height 

 and the Colour of their Floivers, being indispensably necessary in a 

 Flower-Garden. By John Caie, Gardener to Her Grace the 

 Duchess of Bedford, at Cambden Hill. 



(Read at a Meeting of the West London Gardeners' Association, April 10.) 



In the arrangement of plants, as in every thing else, the 

 knowledge attained will be just in proportion to the extent to 

 which the mind has been exercised in the research after facts 

 bearing on the subject. Admitting this to be correct, it fol- 

 lows that our ideas should be greatly expanded and diversified, 

 before we can produce the effects most desirable in flower-gar- 

 dens, namely, harmony and variety ; without which the plants 

 will appear quite as irregular to the cultivated eye, as they were 

 previously to their being removed from their natural situations. 

 As long as gardeners acted without having any fixed principles 

 to guide them, it is no wonder that individuals, ignorant of the 

 art of gardening, succeeded as well in making flower-gardens 

 as those who were then called practical men : but the day is 

 gone by vs^hen such general inattention could be displayed on 

 the part of gardeners ; and they are now expected, not only to 

 understand the practice, but something of the science, of their art. 



Keeping these observations in view, let us now turn our 

 attention to some of the methods practised in effecting improve- 

 ments in flower-gardens. A strict attention to the various soils 

 in which the plants are naturally produced, in the several parts 

 of the world from which they were originally brought, is indis- 

 pensably necessary, in order to insure their healthy appearance 

 and perfect flowering; as, without this, it will be impossible to 

 effect diversity in the height, and in the colour of the flowers of 

 the plants, and in the dui'ation of their flowering. A want of 

 this attention is often the cause of plants being termed not 

 adapted for such purposes, when they are, in fact, exactly suit- 

 able for them. Much will depend on the height and propor- 

 tionate space occupied by plants in the arrangement, so as to 

 produce these effects, either on a flat or an undulating surface ; 



