2 



THE PLOTTER GARDEN. 



spinach all the dog-days through, and the materials for 

 green-peas-soup in February,* — under every condition 

 of the elements, and often with defective material appli- 

 ances ; — the master of the ceremonies to the parterre 

 and pleasure-ground has full carte-UancJie given him : 

 his employer merely says to him, in so many words, or 

 by implication. " Let me have something pretty to look 

 at. and cheerful to walk in : let the out-door apartment 

 of my mansion, which we call ; the garden,' be always- 

 tasty, gay, and well furnished with seats and leafy 

 alcoves for the ladies, — with fountains to serve as lustres, 

 and their basins as mirrors, — with sun-dial3 instead of 

 timepieces, — a smooth carpet of verdant turf softer and 

 more elastic than a Persian rug, — and, everywhere that 

 you can contrive to place them, well-chosen combina- 

 tions of the brightest colours. Tou may order to any 

 reasonable extent of the country nurserymen : and 

 whenever I go to London, I will send you down any 

 striking object that may chance to be attracting atten- 

 tion there. Only let me have a well-kept flower-garden, 

 and I shall be content. If we can show finer and more 

 remarkable specimens than our neighbours, so much the 

 better ; if not, at least let our garden be as good of its 

 kind as theirs." The gardening artist who, under such 

 circumstances, — with the accumulated treasures collected 

 by Fortune, Lobb, Douglas, and other intrepid disco- 

 verers, at his disposal, — fails to produce a pleasing and 

 harmonious effect, is almost left without excuse. 



Therefore, in the laying out and planting gardens and 

 pleasure-grounds, the wisest principle to start from is, 

 not to gratify your own particular predilections in favour 

 of certain classes of flowers and shrubs, but to make 

 them subordinate to the local circumstances in which you 

 find yourself placed. They must be the leading guides 

 of what you will most cultivate, and even of your plan. 

 Thus, in many famous gardens on the continent of 

 Europe, many evergreens, which give the charm to our 

 own shrubberies during a considerable portion of the 

 * See the Gardener's Chronicle for January 5, 1856. 



