VASES AND URNS, &c. 



v 641 



yellow calceolarias, with one of scarlet 

 verbena to complete the group. A good 

 effect is produced in even the best of 

 vases, by employing plants of the three 

 primary colours only, because the just 

 arrangement of colour is as much a work 

 of art as the formation of the vase. In 

 regard to rustic vases, their removal dur- 

 ing winter adds greatly to the nakedness 

 of the garden, while their being kept con^ 

 stantly in use tends greatly to their decay. 

 Those who study economy in the durabi- 

 lity of such rustic ornaments, will do well, 

 when the flowering season is past, to have 

 the earth taken out of them, and, when 

 thoroughly dried, have them secured in a 

 dry airy shed till spring. In planting for 

 early spring display, select the finer varie- 

 ties of Mezereon, Rhododendron atrovi- 

 rens, R. dauricum, with the beautiful 

 scarlet varieties now so common. Ribes 

 sanguineum will be found valuable for 

 centres, while the rest of the surface may 

 be covered with Erica herbacea, crocuses, 

 snowdrops, &c. These to be succeeded by 

 early flowering azaleas, rhododendrons, and 

 spring-flowering herbaceous plants. The 

 summer inhabitants are of great variety. 

 One may be occupied with a scarlet gera- 

 nium, surrounded with Rhodanthe Man- 

 glesii, and bordered with Lobelia erinus 

 compacta. Another may have for a centre 

 Fuchsia fulgens, Verbena Robertson's de- 

 fiance ; while such creepers as Maurandya 

 Barclayana, Lophospermum erubescens, 

 or Tropaeolum canariense, may form the 

 marginal line, and be trained in festoons 

 over the sides, or otherwise, even to the 

 almost entire covering of the whole 

 vase. Such plants as we have named 

 will continue flowering during most 

 of the summer ; while annuals, for 

 the most part, would last only a short 

 time. 



Vases or other architectural ornaments 

 should be always placed as fixed struc- 

 tures. Hence they are in proper keeping 

 when set on the tops of parapet-walls, 

 upon plinths or pedestals, so as to give 

 them a connection with something solid. 

 It is bad, therefore, to set vases, or such 

 architectural ornaments, on grass lawns, 

 gravel-walks, or courts, and still more so 

 on dug borders. " As a general rule," 

 says a writer of taste, " for the gardener 

 in this, and in all similar cases, he may 

 consider it as a fixed principle, that no 



VOL. I. 



work of art should be set down on the 

 ground, in gardens or pleasure-grounds, 

 or any natural scenery, without some 

 kind of artificial preparation or super- 

 structure." 



It should be remembered that, in pla- 

 cing vases, and indeed all architectural or 

 sculptural objects, they should stand on a 

 sufficient basement to connect them with 

 the wall or walk on which they stand. For, 

 as the same authority further observes, 

 " without this connection, or something 

 equivalent, they would not be architec- 

 turally placed ; for, as we have often 

 stated, architectural or sculptural objects 

 ought never to appear but when they are 

 in some way connected with architecture 

 or sculpture. Hence few things are in 

 worse taste than pedestals rising out of 

 turf or dug beds." 



" The propriety of introducing any 

 highly artificial decorations, where there 

 is nothing in the character of the mansion 

 which may seem to warrant them, may 

 perhaps," says Sir Uvedale Price, " be 

 questioned. For my own part, I would 

 rather wish that such improprieties should 

 be risked, for the sake of effect, (where the 

 mischief, if such, could be repaired,) than 

 that improvements should be confined to 

 the present timid monotony. What has 

 struck me, in some cases, and in some 

 points of view, as a fault in the general 

 effect of marble statues in gardens, is their 

 whiteness ; but it is chiefly where there 

 are no buildings nor architectural orna- 

 ments near them; for, like other white 

 objects, they make spots when placed 

 amidst verdure only; whereas the colour 

 and the substance of stone or stucco, 

 by assimilating with that of marble, 

 takes off from a certain crudeness 

 which such statues are apt to give the 

 idea of, when placed alone amongst 

 trees and shrubs. This, however, must 

 rather be considered as a caution than 

 an objection." 



Highly enriched or classical vases may 

 be freely introduced in geometrical gar- 

 dens, elevated on proportionable pedestals, 

 either in marble or artificial stone. Per- 

 haps nothing has tended to exclude sta- 

 tuary and sculpture from even our best 

 gardens, so much as the enormous cost of 

 the former; for, in no garden in this style 

 have we seen the proportion of enrich- 

 ments of this sort which ought to exist in 



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