60 HOME AND GARDEN 



one. I am truly thankful that I have my bank of 

 Briers, but satisfied I am not. Because now, seeing 

 how they may be worthily treated, largely, broadly, 

 beautifully, I desire to do it, and to do it carefully on 

 my own ground where I can watch and wait and 

 correct, and at last get it to such a state that it grows 

 into a picture that I am not ashamed to show. And 

 as the blooming time of the Brier Roses is a short 

 one, I should group with them another family of 

 plants whose flowering season would immediately 

 follow. Such a family is at hand in the Cistincc. And 

 I would carpet the whole with the common English 

 Heaths, always allowing the wild Calluna to be in 

 chief abundance, with here and there a wide-spreading 

 patch of the white Menzicsia. Such a garden or half- 

 wild planting would by no means preclude the use of 

 the Briers in other ways, for if I had to deal with a 

 perfectly formal garden, full of architectural detail, 

 the dainty little laughing Briers would be called in 

 to show how well they would also grace the well- 

 ordered refinements of garden-building. For every- 

 where, and in all sorts of gardens, they are equally at 

 home ; looking as well and as rightly placed by the 

 wrousfht-stone balustrade that bounds the terrace of 

 the palace, as in the narrow spaces given to flowers 

 that border the path from the high-road to the 

 peasant's cottage. 



My Brier Rose garden should have grass paths ; 

 whether wide or narrow, straight or winding, could 



