10 THE FLORIST, AND 



So striking a contrast could not be overlooked. You are now with- 

 in the paddock, in a serpentine approach planted on right and left 

 with variegated holly, backed with cember pine, whose sombre shade 

 formed a striking contrast with the pale variegations of the holly. 

 The next turning opened on beds of heather, beautifully in bloom, 

 interspersed with boxwood and sheltered by towering specimens 

 of Douglas fir and cedars of Lebanon, whose tops are grafted with 

 Deodars, the dark green of the former contrasting with the soft 

 green of the latter — you could not resist the impression of the trees 

 being covered with sea green silken mantlets. Another turning 

 places the winter garden on the left, and brings you up in front of 

 the mansion, from which you have a full view of the Winter Gar- 

 den and Mount of Pleasure, that has no equal in Victoria's domin- 

 ions, or perhaps any other country — a covered walk of several hun- 

 dred yards. You cross its portals, and figure to your mind's eye 

 an old bushy yew tree that had been growing for centuries before its 

 removal to its present site eighteen years ago, forming now a beau- 

 tiful artistically dipt arbour, fourteen feet square and eighteen high, 

 perfect every inch, not a branch nor twig out of place, surmounted 

 by two peacocks formed on the top of each other, and over them 

 cast two rings, all formed with the shears, and perhaps cost as much 

 as any of the architectural churches of Philadelphia. The Irish 

 yew stands in regimental phalanx about eight feet high, grafted 

 with the Taxus aurea formed into crowns, and shining in the sun as 

 if burnished with gold, the Swedish and Irish juniper forming boun- 

 dries of various tints of green and worked up into masses, creating 

 by contrast of color and disposition of dwarfer variegations of fo- 

 liage, habit and form. The prevailing character of the forms were 

 to produce a parterre with colors so contrasted as to strike the eye y 

 producing an impression surpassing any floral arrangement which 

 was readily accomplished with every imaginable shade. For ex- 

 ample — take a half- circle or crescent, and plant the disc with dark 

 upright sombre yew or juniper, and the concave with variegated 

 plants such as Vinca, thyme or Santolina ? and you have at once a 

 winter bouquet. 

 , To enter into a detail would however far outstrip my time and 

 the patience of your readers; we give the outline, and leave them 



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