PLEASURE-GROUND. 



221 



PODOLEPIS. 



the house and the size of the pleasure- 

 ground. A small house and a large 

 garden was the wish of the poet Cow- 

 ley ; and the largest parks are some- 

 times attached to very small houses and 

 small pleasure-grounds, and the con- 

 trary. A pleasure-ground in modern 

 times differs from that prevalent at 

 any former period in including all the 

 scenes and sources of enjoyment and 

 recreation of the ancient style as well 

 as the modern. For example, ad- 

 joining the drawing- room front there 

 is a terrace or terraces, with or with- 

 out an architectural flower-garden, 

 decorated with statues, vases, foun- 

 tains, and other sculptural or archi- 

 tectural objects. Beyond this, or 

 connected with it to the right and left, 

 there may be a lawn with flowers, 

 shrubs, groups of trees, ponds, lakes, 

 rockwork, summerhouses, or green- 

 house, an orangery, and sometimes a 

 botanic garden. Walks may stretch 

 away on either, or on both sides, to 

 a shrubbery, which, in the present 

 day, is commonly framed into an 

 Arboretum and Fruticetum, contain- 

 ing all the hardy trees and shrubs 

 which the extent of the scene will 

 admit of: and in the course of the 

 walk through this scene there may 

 be rustic structures ; such as wood- 

 houses, mosshouses, roothouses, rock- 

 houses, or cyclopsean cottages ; Swiss 

 cottages, common covered seats, ex- 

 posed seats of wood or stone, temples, 

 ruins, grottos, caverns, imitations of 

 ancient buildings ; and, in short, there 

 is scarcely an architectural object ca- 

 pable of being rendered ornamental 

 and a shelter from the sun, the wind, 

 or the rain, which may not find a 

 place. To know all the different 

 scenes which may be introduced in 

 a pleasure-ground in modern times, 

 it is only necessary to visit such a 

 place as Alton Towers, in Stafford- 

 shire, where, in addition to the objects 

 mentioned, maybe seen pagodas, her- 



mitages, an imitation of Stonehenge 

 and of other Druidical monuments, 

 shellwork, gilt domes and huge blocks 

 of mossy rock, bridges, viaducts, and 

 many other curious objects. In small 

 places of an acre or two, the most in- 

 teresting objects which may be intro- 

 duced in a pleasure-ground, are col- 

 lections of trees, shrubs, and herba- 

 ceous plants, which may always be 

 arranged to combine as much pictu- 

 resque beauty and general effect as if 

 there were only the few kinds of trees 

 and shrubs planted which were for- 

 merly in use in such scenes. Where 

 a small place, even of a quarter of an 

 acre, is to be made the most of, there 

 should seldom be more than one or 

 two trees, shrubs, or plants of exactly 

 the same kind ; and the ornamental 

 plants immediately adjoining the 

 house may be combined with the 

 verandah, portico or porch, conserva- 

 tory, greenhouse or hothouses, ter- 

 race, flights of steps, balustrades, 

 vases, statues, fountains, walks, rock- 

 work, and a great variety of similar 

 objects, according to the taste of the 

 designer, the peculiarities of the situ- 

 ation, and the expense which the pro- 

 prietor is disposed to incur. 



Plectra'nthus. — Labiatce. — East 

 Indian and Australian plants, generally 

 requiring a stove in England, and 

 which are not worth the trouble it 

 takes to cultivate them. 



Plumbago. — Plumbagmece. — 

 Lead-wort. Greenhouse plants, re- 

 markable for their vigorous growth 

 and abundance of flowers. They 

 should be grown in light rich soil, 

 and they are propagated by cut- 

 tings. 



Podolepis. — Composites. — Very 

 pretty Australian plants, which should 

 be grown in a compost of loam and 

 peat. They are all nearly hardy ; 

 the perennials are increased by divid- 

 ing the root, and the annuals (P. gra- 

 cilis, &c.) by sowing on a hotbed in 



