liaixh 23, 1871. 



JOtJJBNAIj OF HOimcULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEE, 



215 



space of 4 feet for the walk. On each side of the stake at 

 {joint A meosme 6 feet, and insert a peg as at point 13, also at 

 point 19. On each side of stake b measure the same distance, 

 and insert pegs as at points 15, 20. From c find points 16 and 

 18, and insert pegs ; also from d find points 14 and 17, and 

 inseit pegs. Lay lines connecting points 13 14, 15 16, 17 18, 

 19 20, also points r s, i u, v id, and x y ; the latter lines will be 

 found to cut the ends of the side beds. Find the centre square, 

 the side of which is 7 feet; also find the four rectangular beds, 

 the sides of which are 7 and 15 feet respectively. Insert pegs 

 at the corners, and lay lines completing the figure. The lines 

 are intended for Box edging ; B, beds ; m, walks ; v, vase. — 

 M. O'DoNKELL, Gardener to E. Leeming, Esq., Spring Grove, 

 Bichmond. 



much akin to this in gardening matters as well. A sort of 

 compact seems to have been entered into of late years to espel 



PUZZLING THE SPARROWS. 

 LiviNQ in the outskirts of Oxford, having a garden of about 

 an acre, and being surrounded by houses, 'my greatest enemies 

 have been house sparrows. The cooks at those houses make the 

 practice of feeding the birds, so, of course, I have more than 

 wanted to visit me. When my Peas, Badishes, &e., have been 

 lip, these young gentlemen soon make their appearance and 

 destroy everything. Of course I have no netting to go over all 

 the garden. I have tried everything that can be mentioned, 

 such as sawdust, cotton rags, glass, &;., but this year I am 

 pleased to say I have beat them. 



I make a practice of sowing Peas between Potatoes, so, there- 

 fore, they are far apart. I bought some orow-stiing, of which 

 you get twelve balls for Is., and I have a small can with a 

 spout. In this can I place the ball of string, drawing the end 

 of it through the spout. I first of all see if the string will 

 come out, so as not to get entangled ; then I put in three sticks 

 at one end and three at the other end of a row of Peas. I 

 commence my work by pouring some gas tar that has not 

 been boiled into the can. I tio the string at one end, carry 

 the can to the other, twist the string round the stick to and fro. 

 After that I go away with comfort. 



My fruit trees have been subjected to the same protection by 

 putting a tall stick at each end and each side, taking the string 

 to and fro from top to bottom, and you would be surprised to 

 see a sparrow who has settled on the string ! He flies away to 

 the rest of them, and seems to me to inform them of such 

 treatment — the gas tar sticking to his feet, and not easily to be 

 removed ! — A Feiend not to Spakkows. 



HAND BOUQUETS. 



It is not without some misgivings that I address myself to a 

 subject on which many opinions exist, especially as my own 

 may be at variance with much that is met with in actual prac- 

 tice ; but I am emboldened by the fact that on a former 

 occasion several years ago, when I ventured to differ from what 

 was almost the generally received opinion on a matter of orna- 

 ment, and was condemned for doing so, 1 had the satis- 

 faction of finding much that I said then was afterwards ap- 

 proved of. I therefore venture once more to appear as a 

 censor in a matter of which your fair readers, doubtless, think 

 they ought to be considered the best judges, and I may, perhaps, 

 suffer for my temerity. 



I shall commence the attack on what may be termed neutral 

 ground. The architect and builder of a house, if it be a good 

 one, are generally allowed some share of the credit, as well as 

 the owner, and they must expect to share the blame if it is 

 otherwise than good. In a like manner, we, as directing the 

 arrangement of some of Nature's choicest ornaments, must not 

 expect to come off scatheless, if we do our work in a clumsy and 

 distasteful manner. Now, the very mention of the word taste 

 carries with it so much that is controversial, that no one has 

 yet been able to define properly what that term really includes, 

 everyone setting up a standard for himself, for with the ex- 

 ception of certain features of ornamentation derived from 

 nations that have disappeared centuries ago, which features 

 are but rarely attacked, there is nothing of modern date but 

 what is made the subject of dispute. The buildings of the 

 last century, however substantial and convenient they may be, 

 are almost Invariably condemned as defective in ornament, 

 or where the latter has been attempted, it is said to be of an 

 improper kind ; while, on the other hand, old castles, churches, 

 and other structures of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, 

 are almost worshipped, until, perhaps, it is accidentally found 

 out that their erection took place at a more modern date ; then 

 their condemnation is ensured. Now there is something very 



from the flower garden and exhibition tents all but a lew 

 orthodox members, and as a consequence a certain degree of 

 sameness pervades both. This cannot justly be called toste, 

 though it may be fashion ; the one is like the laws of the Medes 

 and Persians unalterable, the other may claim extraordinary 

 .consistency if it remain the ssme for twelve months, the laws 

 that govern true taste being the same in all time — the same 

 in 1871 as in 1831, or centuries before. 



Of late years flowers have been considered a necessary 

 feature wherever other fine things are. Churches on festive 

 occasions are often decked with flowers, and in the graveyard 

 flowers also play a conspicuous part. In the decoration of the 

 rooms of the effluent flowers are as much in request in some 

 cases as furniture, and their ameliorating influence in our large 

 towns is not sufficiently recognised. Witness the pleasure with 

 which the ragged urchin from some confined garret gazes ou 

 the beautiful flower beds that adorn the London parks and 

 many of those connected with other large towns, and yet he 

 does not injure them, although the innate desire he has fur 

 mischief would have found vent had these flowers been some- 

 thing else ; but to him they are sacred, he gazes at them, and 

 admires them in his way, and passes on. Let us hope their 

 presence may bring better things into his mind. Certain it is 

 that wherever flowers make their appearance in a window, the 

 visitor is sure to find peace and good will in that room ; but I 

 must not dwell further on this subject here, as my purpose is 

 to find fault with flowers being placed where they ought not to 

 be, or in a way not to be approved of. 



For many} ears. I may say centuries, before horticultural 

 and other societies gave tnoouragement to well-arranged 

 bouquets, these tokens of good feeling had existed under the 

 modest but expiessive title of nosegays :and if we searched 

 into their early history it would most likely be found that they 

 originated with childien. No one who has watched the play- 

 ful actions of the young can have failed to observe the fondness 

 they display for flowers, collecting them with great assiduity, 

 and evidently admiring them with all the relish of a connoisseur 

 almost as soon as they can toddle alone ; years afterwards when 

 their turn comes to attend the village school the girls may 

 often be met with on a spring morning making up for their 

 governess a nosegay that a royal gardener cannot excel. Prim- 

 roses and Violets, with an outside bordering of the foliage of 

 the latter, make one of the prettiest of all bjuquete, and ex- 

 ceeded by none in point of sweetness. The agreeable contrast 

 these two flowers offer to each other cannot be surpassed, and 

 their quiet and unassuming beauty is never excelled by the 

 riches of the flower garden in advanced summer. I have often 

 instanced these flowers as being the best from which a nosegay 

 could be made, and one confined to them alone as a model of 

 what a nosegay ought to be, not only because of the beautiful 

 combination of colours, but from the fact of their seldom ex- 

 ceeding those moderate dimensions to which Ithink all bouquets 

 intended to be carried in the hand ought to be confined. Here 

 I expect to meet with much opposition from the fair sex, who 

 assume to be the only judges in such matters, but I nevertheless 

 make the attack on those huge artificial bundles of flowers 

 which they affect to prize so much, and some of which as ob- 

 jects of manufacture are certainly deserving of great praise, 

 but as objects of beauty there may be some difference of 

 opinion. On the equaily important point of utility there can 

 be no question that the size of hand bouquets often renders 

 them an unwieldy appendage, but as fashion has ordained 

 so they have to be, and one can only have the privilege of 

 grumbling about them. Let us now endeavour to see in what 

 way they can be made to serve the purposes for which they are 

 required, and at the same time present the best appearance 

 the materials will allow. 



At most horticultural shows of late years it has been the 

 custom to offer prizes for the best bouquet for the hand, as 

 well as one for the table ; and here I shall confine myself to 

 the first named. I have on some occasions acted as one of the 

 judges in this department, and there is nothing, perhaps, at a 

 show on which the judgment is more likely to be criticised. 

 An experienced friend told me he would rather undertake a 

 judge's duties in any department than in that of bouquets and 

 Grapes, the difficulty in discriminating between the rival merits 

 of specimens of the latter being as unpleasant as that arising 

 from the different views which each one takes as to what should 

 guide the oensorship of bouquets. The critical eyes of the 

 many fair lookers-on in the after part of the day show that the 



