Flowers and Gardens 



closer tufts on open banks of gravel ? I 

 have chosen localities altogether imagi- 

 nary, and am, of course, well aware that 

 the plant's colours are too bright to asso- 

 ciate easily with the tints of our native 

 flowers. 



But is it not right in a public garden to 

 seek after brilliant display ? Is not that 

 just the very place for it? Yes, if the 

 brilliancy be of a proper kind. The fault 

 I attack lies in concentrating our attention 

 too much upon effects of one special class, 

 produced by the bright colours of a 

 crowded assemblage of plants, all prim, 

 compact, and of a low habit of growth. 

 When we turn from these show-beds, how 

 often we find there are no other flowers 

 in the garden which possess any lively 

 interest ! There are sure to be evergreens 

 in abundance, but summer is no time for 

 them. If we followed Nature, we should 

 scorn so much formal neatness, spreading 

 often over so large a space of ground, and 

 should cultivate a more noble splendour, 

 with proper variety and repose. The 

 plants would then be more intermixed, as 

 we see them in the rustic garden, and we 

 should love them as we love them there. 

 Beds of the present sort, when permitted 

 at all, would then lead off into surrounding 

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