200 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE- GARDENER. 



[ March 17, 1863. 



I also think that the taste displayed by Mrs. Siddons in the 

 arrangement of her evergreens, to give a cheerful appearance to 

 her suburban villa during the winter monlhB, iB •worthy of 

 notice. It was planted with Box trees, Fir, Privet, Phillyrea, 

 Arbor Vitae, Holly, Cypress, tne Red Cedar, Laurel, Irish Ivy, 

 Bay trees, Laurus'.inus, Arbutns, Spurge Laurel, &c. After the 

 display of flowers was over, it was, no doubt, viewed with a 

 degree of satisfaction, as giving rise to a pleasing association of 

 ideas, in beholding their green verdure at a time when deciduous 

 trees were stripped bare. 



Mr. Loudon, in his descriptive notice of the gardens of the 

 Misses Gamier, at Wickham, near Fareham, in the " Gardener's 

 Magazine " of May, 1834, tells us that the bold masses of bril- 

 liant-coloured flowers and the succession of masses of flowers, 

 with their intervening glades of turf, extending to a considerable 

 distance till the colours were almost lost in the boundary planta- 

 tion, produced a landscape of the most brilliant kind. When 

 we look closely into the ground-plan of that garden, and examine 

 the details, we find that beauty in masses is the predominant 

 feature, combined with a smaller portion of the mixed system. 

 There are beds of herbaceous plants distinct ; Perpetual Boses 

 distinct ; Boses edged with Pansies ; Potentillas and Caloeolarias 

 edged with Viola cornuta ; Hollyhocks edged with China Boses ; 

 beds of Pinks, Pelargoniums, and Terbena ehamtedrifolia ; a col- 

 lection of Phloxes ; Fuchsia carnea edged with Lobelia triquetra ; 

 Lupines, Hydrangeas, Petunias, Mimulus, and Poeonies distinct. 

 We also find that there were only Verbenas cbamsedrifolia, pul- 

 chella, lamberti, Aubletia, and venosa, and Geraniums Ban- 

 guineum, Lancastriense, sibiricum, and Walliehianum, which 

 are very old and inconspicuous sorts when compared with the 

 variety and brilliancy of the sorts now in general cultivation. 

 We are directed by Mr. Loudon to the Bev. Thomas Gamier, at 

 Bishopstoke; to Mrs. Corrie, near Birmingham ; to Mrs. Bobert 

 Phillips, near Cheadle ; to Lady Broughton, near Chester ; and 

 to Mrs. Starkey, at Bowness, as the most distinguished places 

 where the beds were most judiciously planted, and the order and 

 keeping of the whole were of the very highest and most refined 

 description. 



Hay, " On Colours," tells us that all know that the arrange- 

 ment of notes in a melody is regulated by fixed laws, proved 

 also by the natural philosopher to depend on certain phenomena 

 in nature, and which cannot be deviated from without giving 

 offence to the ear : therefore a knowledge of these laws is con- 

 sidered absolutely requisite to every one who wishes to cultivate 

 that pleasing art. This is precisely the case in regard to colour- 

 ing ; for it does not matter under what circumstances a variety 

 of colours is presented to the eye ; if they be harmoniously ar- 

 ranged the effect will be as agreeable to that organ as harmonious 

 music is to the ear, but if not so arranged, the effect on the eye 

 must be unpleasant, and the more cultivated the mind of the 

 individual the more annoying will such discordance be. 



On the harmony of colours he says, " If we look steadily for a 

 considerable time upon a spot of any given colour placed on a 

 white or black ground, it will appear surrounded by a border of 

 another colour ; and this colour will uniformly be found to be 

 that which makes up the triad, for if the spot be red the border 

 will be green, which is composed of blue and yellow ; if blue the 

 border will be orange, composed of yellow and red ; if yellow 

 the border will be purple, making in all cases a triunity of the 

 three primary colours — red, blue, and yellow, the three simple 

 or homogenous colours, of which all others are compounds. 

 This analogy will help to show that the laws which govern 

 colour are as irrefragable, and at the same time as practically 

 necessary to the colourist in art, manufacture, or decoration, and, 

 I would add, to the gardener, as those which govern sound are 

 to the musician." Also, from the combination of the primary 

 colours the secondary arise, and are orange, which is composed 

 of yellow and red in the proportion of 3 and 5 ; purple, which 

 is composed of yellow and blue in the proportion of 5 and 8 ; 

 and green, composed of yellow and blue in the proportion of 

 3 and 8. 



Contrasting Colotirs. — Yellow, its contrasting colour is purple; 

 orange, its contrasting colour is blue. Orange is the extreme 

 point of warmth in colouring, as blue is of coldness. Bed, its 

 contrasting colour is green. Bed is decidedly a warm colour. 

 Purple iB rather a cool colour, and very retiring in effeot. Blue 

 is the only absolutely cool colour ; the contrasting colour to 

 blue is the secondary orange. Each of these colours is capable 

 of forming a key for an arrangement to which all the other 

 colours must refer subordinately. This reference and subordi- 



nation to one particular colour, as is the case in regard to the 

 key-note in musical composition, gives a character to the whole. 

 The succession of colours in the key are yellow, orange, red, 

 purple, blue, neutral, green. The diagrams given are also 

 worthy of particular notice as showing a series of hues for each, 

 of the primaries. 



The true knowledge of colour is not to be acquired by theory ; 

 some people have a false taste, some a false perception, which is 

 otherwise called " colour-blindness." A true perception is a 

 natural gift, like an ear for music, and it may be cultivated, but 

 cannot be acquired. To attempt to find the reasons why one 

 colour harmonises with another is futile until we have obtained 

 a full empirical, generalisation. 



The last and best work on colours is by Sir J. G. Wilkinson, 

 published in 1858. The following paragraph is valuable as a 

 guide in our arrangement of colours in the flower garden : — 

 " Colours are opposed to each other in different degrees. 1st, The 

 strongest opposition iB by positive contrast where the colours 

 are of different hues and natures — as black and white, blue and 

 orange, scarlet and blue, &c. Of these Mr. Field says, 'The only 

 two contrasting colours which are of equal powers are black 

 and white, orange and blue ; and all other contrasts are perfect 

 only when one of the antagonistic colours predominates. 2nd, 

 Opposition or contrast of warm and cold colours ; among the 

 former of which are red, yellow, orange, brown, red-purple, &c. ; 

 among the latter blue, grey, green, purple, white, blue-black, &c. 

 3rd, Opposition or contrast of dark and light colours, or op- 

 position^ tones, as where the colours are tones of the same hue, 

 one stronger than the other — as dark and light yellow. 4th, Oppo- 

 sition or contrast of accidental colours is where a colour and its 

 accidental companion are opposed to each other — as red and 

 green, blue and orange, yellow and purple.' " 



From the attention that is now given to ornamentation in the 

 arts and 'manufactures, and to a general diffusion of taste among 

 all classes, We may Boon expect to see the whimsical combination 

 and the indiscriminate and incongruous mixture of colours, as at 

 present very 'generally adopted in flower gardens, superseded 

 by arrangements more in accordance with the true principles of 

 taste. From the innumerable varieties of seedlings that are yearly 

 raised with all the colours of the rainbow we can select the most 

 suitable colours, and blend, shade, or contrast them as our taste 

 becomes more cultivated. We must also bear in mind when 

 arranging the colours in the flower garden that red and blue, 

 which if mixed would form purple, become at a distance some- 

 how fused by the eye into that colour, and that yellow placed 

 next to red produces upon the retina the effect of an orange hue. 

 But blue and yellow in juxtaposition do not produce green, or, 

 if at all, to much less extent than the analogous secondary 

 colourB. Green has another peculiarity — that a certain quantity 

 of it appears to be greater than the Bame quantity of other 

 colours, and, consequently, a very small quantity of it will 

 brighten-up a design. W. Kbahe. 



MANAGEMENT OE APRICOT TEEES. 



In your No. 101 I felt much interested when I read the 

 above heading, and I at once read through the three columns 

 written by Mr. Bobson. I quite hoped to have found soma 

 new method of insuring a crop of Apricots ; but I cannot say 

 that I found what I wished for. Still Mr. Bobson is voluminous, 

 and tells us that he believes the native country of the Apricot 

 to be the southern shores of the Black Sea; that the Apricot 

 attains the proportions of a fair-sized timber tree in Armenia 

 (well, well, this is surely not far from the southern shores of the 

 said sea) ; that the air of high regions is good for the Apricot ; 

 and that we have no mode of imitating this highly rarefied air ; 

 that the cause of our want of success is thus revealed ; that 

 " soil has no little influence over success ;" that he is not quite 

 certain he is right in supposing some of the old sorts are worn 

 out, such as the Moorpark and the Peach Apricot, perhaps the 

 oldest of all except the " Kill-John " of Africa (the Bed Mas- 

 culine). 



Now, all this is interesting, I daresay, to many of your readers ; 

 but I confess I looked for some useful hints as to the " manage- 

 ment " of Apricot trees, and also a full account of the districts 

 in England where the Apricot tree is found trained against 

 almost every cottage, helping to pay the rent ; as Mr. Bobson 

 is, of course, a travelled man, for no writer on gardening should 

 be a Btay-at-home, I repeat I expected this from him. 



