820 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



Few evergreens with us attain the size of timber-trees, those 

 of the genera Quercus and Pinus excepted. For a Hst of the 

 principal of them, with their heights, &c., see the Systematic 

 Catalogues. 



FLOWER GARDEN. 



Almost all writers on this subject agree in placing the 

 flower garden near the house, that it may be readily had ac- 

 cess to at all seasons. In small places, or cottage or villa 

 residences, this may be desirable ; but in places of consider- 

 able extent, and particularly where the mansion is large, we 

 would propose to have the. flower garden at some reasonable 

 distance from it, and to be reached by a sufficiently broad 

 and dry gravel-walk, extending through some part of the lawn 

 and shrubbery. In all cases, unless in small villas or cottage 

 residences, the flower garden should be entirely concealed 

 from the windows of the house, and be placed, if circum- 

 stances will admit of it, in the shrubbery. Situations are, 

 however, often to be found naturally calculated for the site 

 of the flower garden; and these situations should, in most 

 cases, direct the designer as to style, form, and extent. Na- 

 tural situations never should be lost sight of in selecting a 

 station for the flower garden. The surrounding scenery, both 

 as regards shelter and picturesque beauty, will, in many cases, 

 be found better and more interesting when almost naturally 

 formed than when artificially planted. Irregularity of surface 

 is often desirable in the choice of a situation for a flower 

 garden, and many attempts have been made to attain this ar- 

 tificially. Of this sort of art was Pope's garden at Twick- 

 enham ; and Lord Harcourt's, at Xuneham, was upon the 

 same principle ; both much admired, and both die production 

 of poets : the latter being laid out by Mason, and the former 

 by its owner. 



Where the proprietor has a taste for flowers, and the situ- 

 ation of sufficient extent, it will be found, in most cases, to 

 have the happiest eftect to have several small flower gardens 

 in preference to one large one. Abercrombie justly observes, 

 that to cover twenty acres with mere flowering plants, would 



