THE ru AC I K'AL GARDENER. 



exist we cannot expect tluit this sort of flower garden will be- 

 coine by any means general. 



The Chongeahlc Flower Garden To this style of garden- 

 ing the Chinese arc extremely partial, and they are well 

 skilled in it. It is by no means an unusual circumstance for 

 a mandarin to have the whole of his flower garden completely 

 changed in the course of one night, not only in the arrange- 

 ment of the plants, but also in that of the beds or compart- 

 ments. For this purpose, the plants are all portable, and 

 are cultivated in a reserve-garden in pots ; and when any in- 

 dividual plant or genus of plants decays or goes out of flower, 

 others are immediately substituted for them ; and when the 

 whole are to be changed, they are removed to the reserve- 

 garden, where there is always a stock kept up sufficient to 

 replant the whole. Gardens of this description are described 

 by Sir W. Chambers in his work on oriental gardening. The 

 Chinese, he observes, are particular in the arrangement of 

 their flower gardens ; they do not scatter their flowers indis- 

 criminately about their borders, but dispose of them with great 

 circumspection along the skirts of the plantation, or other 

 places where flowers are to be introduced. They reject all 

 that are of a straggling growth, of harsh colors, and poor 

 foliage ; choosing such only as are of som.e duration, which 

 grow either large or in clusters, of beautiful forms, well- 

 leaved, and of tints that harmonize with the greens that sur- 

 round them. They avoid all sudden transitions, both with 

 regard to dimension and color, rising gradually from the 

 smallest flowers to the hollyhocks, poeonies, sun-flowers, car- 

 nation poppies, and others of the boldest growth ; and varying 

 their tints by easy gi'adations from white, straw-color, purple, 

 and incarnate, to the deepest blues, crimsons, and scarlets. 

 They fiequently blend several roots together whose leaves and 

 flowers unite, and compose one rich harmonious mass, such 

 as the white and purple candy-tuft, larkspurs, and piallows 

 of various colors ; double poppies, lupins, primroses, pinks, 

 and carnations, with many more of which the forms and colors 

 accord with each other ; and the same method they use with 

 flowering- shrubs, blending white, red, and variegated roses 

 together ; purple and white lilacs, yellow and white jessamine, 



