8 



THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



work.' Now, besides the absurdity of a serpentine path 

 in a small garden, such a path is made still more ridicu- 

 lous by the fact of its leading nowhere ; whereas a simple 

 division of the soil into parterres and gravel paths — with- 

 out any attempt at the country lane or lovers' walk — 

 accomplishes all that it professes, by enabling the visitor 

 to reach any object that attracts him, the path itself 

 remaining a convenience, not a feature. 



" Most town residences have front plots, and these, if 

 well kept, add very much to the neatness, cheerfulness, 

 and indeed respectability, of a house. Just as we judge 

 of a man by his dress and general bearing, so may we 

 judge of him by the appearance of his home. A scrubby 

 pair of neglected chrysanthemums trailing over a sour 

 and ragged grass-plot, or a sooty shrubbery of untrimmed, 

 worm-eaten, and flowerless lilac-trees, do as much to dis- 

 grace a house and its occupant, as a string of pewter 

 pots dangling from the garden railings, and half-a-dozen 

 broken windows. A front plot, being smaller, requires, 

 of course, less labour than a garden, but, if possible, 

 more taste. Lay out your plot in the simplest manner 

 possible, and do not suffer your neighbour to laugh at an 

 endless variety of parterres of all shapes and sizes, edged 

 with oyster-shells, and filled up with plants that would 

 disgrace a common. One central bed, and a continuous 

 border, are usually all you have room for, or, at least, 

 three (always prefer odd numbers) beds of equal sizes, 

 and in these you may keep up a show of annuals and 

 herbaceous perennials. The centre of each bed should 

 have a handsome flowering shrub ; and near the house 

 one or two laurels and a holly will serve as a screen 

 against dust, and ensure privacy for your windows. A 

 very small plot is best laid down with grass and clean 

 gravel, without flowers at all ; in the centre, a variegated 

 holly, box-tree, or laurel, may be planted ; and all the 

 labour required is to keep the grass closely shaven, or 

 the gravel neatly swept. Here the object must be to 

 produce a neat appearance, and to avoid all attempts at 

 bewildering outlines, massive shrubbery, or thin sprink- 



