and of Rural Improvement, during 1835. 613 



ject, that there are very few persons, whether gardeners or their 

 employers, who are capable of reducing to practice the principles 

 laid down in the works of Whately, Mason, George Mason, 

 Knight, Price, and others; and the reason of this is, that the 

 elementary steps necessary to the full comprehension of these 

 writers are wanting in their respective works. 



There are two points in landscape-gardening in which, we 

 think, some progress has been made during the last two or three 

 years, at least by reading gardeners : the first is, in adjusting 

 flower or shrubbery beds to the bends of the walks adjoining 

 which they are placed, so that the position and form of the one 

 accounts for that of the other ; and the next is, in the keeping of 

 walks nearly brimful of gravel, and clipping the grass on their 

 edges, so as completely to conceal the soil, instead of paring 

 them, and showing the raw naked earth. We noticed both these 

 errors in 1831 (Vol. VII. p. 401.): we have subsequently ad- 

 verted to them on various occasions, and the first will be found 

 illustrated by a number of engravings of flower-gardens in the 

 present volume. We consider this as a positive point gained in 

 the advancement of landscape-gardening ; and the next step, we 

 hope, will be the union, or grouping, and connexion of flower- 

 beds on a lawn, in such a manner as to form a whole, or a series 

 of wholes. In consequence of the great increase of the taste for 

 floriculture, numerous flower-gardens have lately been laid out 

 on lawns throughout the country, most of which show a glaring 

 deficiency in these respects. We have pointed out the prevail- 

 ing errors, in our criticisms on the competition designs for flower- 

 gardens in this volume, p. 237. 284. 352. and 449., already 

 referred to. 



Arboriculture may be considered with reference to the use and 

 effects of trees, collectively, in plantations ; and their use, beauty, 

 or botanical interest, as individuals. With reference to useful 

 plantations, the greatest improvement which has been made, 

 within the last two or three years, is, the plan of planting in 

 rows, at regular distances, diff*erent kinds of trees, in the same 

 plantation ; and, from the nature of the trees and the soil, pre- 

 determining the time when each sort shall be cut down. This 

 is decidedly the most scientific method of planting for profit ; 

 and though something of the kind has been suggested in France, 

 in the case of avenues, as shown by M. Baudrillart, in his Dic- 

 tionnaire General des Eaux et Forets, Paris, 1823, 4to, in the ar- 

 ticle Projet d^ Avenues Perpetuelles, yet the merit of having applied 

 the system to masses of plantation in Britain belongs exclusively, 

 we believe, to Mr. Charles Lawrence, who had no knowledge 

 of M. Baudrillart's Projet. (See Mr. Lawrence's article on 

 the subject, Vol. X. p. 26.) Planting, with a view to orna- 

 ment, may be classed under the same heads as landscape-gar- 



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