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GARDENESQUE STYLE OF FLOWER-GARDENS. 



planted between them, and so, in fact, 

 cover the ground. We would, however, 

 prefer to have each species in a flower- 

 pot, plunged to the rim ; for without this 

 separation the stronger kinds would over- 

 run the weaker, and often the more rare 

 species. If the situation be shaded, and yet 

 not moist, the latter effect can be readily 

 remedied by bringing water in pipes, and 

 so disposing of them that they may form 

 little fountains, or be perforated along 

 their sides, and so give out a sufficient sup- 

 ply to the masses on which the plants grow, 

 and from them to the ground and lower 

 parts, which require the most ; but that 

 saturation or overflow may not take place, 

 provision can readily be made to allow the 

 superfluous water to pass off in a drain. 



This garden would be, perhaps, more 

 appropriately placed in one in the strict 

 picturesque style ; but if the owner of a gar- 

 den in the gardenesque desire such, there 

 is no reason why he should not have it. 



Many of the more rare and most 

 minute of both sections can scarcely be 

 cultivated in the open air. This, we 

 believe, does not arise so much from cli- 

 mate as from their inability to stand the 

 effects of the same amount of air that 

 other plants so much require. These, 

 therefore, should be cultivated in pots, 

 and placed under a glass frame set in a 

 shady quiet spot ; nor will such a frame, 

 partially hid by rockwork, be at all out 

 of place in such a garden. 



In the picturesque style many eligible 

 situations will present themselves natu- 

 rally, where such plants may be culti- 

 vated with much less attention and 

 greater success. 



The winter garden. — The principal advan- 

 tages to be aimed at from a winter garden 

 in the open air of our climate are the 

 maximum of shelter, with great extent of 

 walks, these being so disposed that a re- 

 turn to the point of starting from may 

 occur at short distances apart; that every 

 shrub and plant that flowers from October 

 till the end of March may be congregated ; 

 that, as there is a great want of flowering 

 plants during that period, evergreens be 

 abundantly planted ; and those having 

 curious or variegated leaves be added, 

 with a view to render the garden as 

 attractive, and at the same time as com- 

 fortable, as possible. Still farther to carry 

 out these views, as the means used for 



producing shelter would have some ten- 

 dency to keep the walks rather damp, 

 from want of a full circulation of air, we 

 would propose to render them thoroughly 

 dry by under-drainage, and a sufficiency 

 of broken stones, or rough-sifted gravel, 

 and over that a thin coat of small sea or 

 river gravel. These, although they do not 

 bind into a hard surface, admit of the 

 rain passing through, and leaving the 

 surface at all times dry to walk upon. 



Were it not for the colour, coal-ashes, 

 finely sifted, make the driest and best of 

 all walks for such situations. The ashes 

 from some steam-engines are excellent for 

 this purpose, as they are often to be had 

 of a reddish as well as of a cream-colour, 

 depending on the nature of the coal used. 

 In default of either of these, pitching the 

 walks with small pebbles, not more than 

 2 inches in diameter, set in prepared clay, 

 will make a dry and comfortable winter 

 walk. 



In such a garden the walks should not 

 be too narrow, nor should the trees and 

 shrubs be planted too close. If they are 

 so, the person who goes into them to be 

 free from the sun is choked for want of 

 air; and the same closeness occasions a 

 perpetual dampness, and an atmosphere 

 highly charged with malaria. Everything 

 in them is gloomy and disagreeable, more 

 the abode of melancholy than of cheerful- 

 ness. Instead of this, we ought to have a 

 kind of retired pleasure in such a garden ; 

 for solitude, shade, shelter, or retirement 

 need have no connection with savage 

 darkness, or a dreary walled-above or 

 hedged-in passage. If the walks be ser- 

 pentine, let them not be too much curved, 

 twisted, and narrow ; — on the contrary, 

 let them be of a respectable breadth, so 

 that we shall be able to walk in them 

 with pleasure. The trees will not then 

 close so completely at top as to shut out 

 air, while they will still give a sufficient 

 shade from the sun, and shelter from the 

 piercing blast : we shall also have at the 

 same time freedom, ease, and elegance. 



Alcoves, temples, or places of shelter 

 and rest, should be placed at convenient 

 distances, but always fully exposed to the 

 sun on one side, for winter enjoyment, 

 and to the opposite aspect also, for the 

 heat of summer. The borders should 

 be planted with evergreens, introducing 

 laurustinus abundantly on account of its 



