Faults in Gardening 



delicious thought of being lost and em- 

 bosomed in a tall, rich wood of flowers. 

 All is clear, definite, and classical — the 

 work of a too narrow and exclusive 

 taste, as was that of Pope and other 

 writers of his school.^ Compare this 

 with the work of Nature when she pro- 

 duces a striking effect, as in the South 

 American forests. The magnificence of 

 these is too much for a poetic mind. It 

 is something absolutely bewildering and 

 embarrassing, and yet just a dim hint of 

 what God could show us if He opened 

 the full treasures of His splendour ; but 

 here there is endless variety, the most 

 diverse forms of beauty side by side with 

 every description of strange, uncouth, 

 enormous growth — Cactus, Palm, and 

 Plantain — bound together with rope-like 

 Lianas, and Orchids everywhere bursting 

 out upon the trees. Consequently the 

 effect is right ; we are not tempted to 



^ By far the most natural mode of arrangement is that 

 which permits a greater or less intermixture of fruit-trees, 

 vegetables, and flowers. We freely grant that this inter- 

 mixture will not always be possible, but we are convinced 

 that it might generally be effected to a much greater 

 extent than at present. Apple-trees, for instance, might 

 easily be planted on many of our lawns and flower-beds. 

 But, unfortunately, our private gardens in all respects too 

 closely imitate the public ones. Some of the faults we 

 are discussing are comparatively venial in the latter, 

 whilst in the former they are highly mischievous. 

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