50 



THE PARC MONCEAU. 



If any good at all is to be done by means of flowers and gar- 

 dens^ you must give men a living interest,, a lasting curiosity 

 in tbem. and some other objects than those "v^hicli can be 

 taken in by the eye in a moment. Numbers are occupied 

 and delighted with gardening as it stands at present, but it 

 can hardly be doubted that a system with something like an 

 aim at true art would be sure to attract many more ; and it 

 is patent that there are numbers even among the ed-ucated 

 classes who take no interest whatever in the garden^ simpty 

 because they can in few places find any real beauty or 

 interest in it. To confine ourselves to a single phase of 

 the subject, it is certain that if all interested in flower gar- 

 dening had an opportunity of seeing the charming effects 

 produced by judiciously intermingling fine-leaved plants 

 with brilliant flowers, and of which there are such handsome 

 examples in this park, there would be an immediate revolu- 

 tion in our flower-gardening, and verdant grace and beauty of 

 form would be introduced, and all the brilliancy of colour that 

 could be desired might be seen at the same time. The beauty 

 and finish of many of the finer beds here, are of the 

 highest order, in consequence of the adoption of the prin- 

 ciple of variety. Here is a bed of Erythrinas not yet in 

 flower : but what aff'ords that brilliant and singular mass of 

 colour beneath them, a display which makes the visitor 

 pause when he comes near the bed ? Simply a mixture of 

 the lighter varieties of Lobelia speciosa with variously 

 coloured and brilliant Portulaccas. The beautiful sui-facings 

 that may thus be made with annual, biennial, or ordinary 

 bedding plants, from mignonette to Alternanthera, are 

 infinite. At the risk of driving off the general reader we 

 must now begin to use hard names, and go deeper into purely 

 technical and horticultural matters, for we shall not else- 

 where meet an opportunity of doing so with so much 

 advantage. It is only fair to warn the reader that tliis is a 

 purely horticultural chapter. 



The following are a few examples of these graceful mixtures 

 seen in this garden during the past year : — A bed of Arundo 

 Donax versicolor, springing from Lobelia speciosa ; a bed 

 of Ficus elastica, the ground beneath perfectly hidden by 



