LAYING-OUT OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN. 175 



economy and the arts. Great Britain and its colonies 

 by themselves miglit yield a most instructive exliibition 

 of this kind. The mnsenm in the Royal Gardens at Kew 

 is the object of high patronage, and is rapidly increasing 

 in magnitude and importance. A x^romising beginning 

 has also been made at Edinburgh, which, it is to be 

 hoped, will continue to make progress. In both cases, 

 ^ however, much remains to be done before they can be said 

 to have accomplished their proper object. Meanwhile 

 they are worthy of all aid and approbation, as most 

 useful and instructive parts of the institutions to which 

 they belong. The teiritorial princij)le was well exem- 

 plified in the Great Exhibition of 1851. 



Laying-out of the Botanic Garden. — ^The botanic gar- 

 den, particularly when extensive, may be regarded as 

 a combination of the pleasure-ground and the flower- 

 garden — the former character predominating in the 

 arboretum, and the latter in the smaller and more orna- 

 mental flower-beds and borders. Erom the limited 

 extent of space, and the variety of special adaptations 

 to particular purposes, it is ditficult to introduce much 

 of the pictorial elfect arising from the groups of trees 

 and shrubs, interspersed with lawns, which is so promi- 

 nent a feature in a well laid-out pleasure-ground. StiU, 

 we think that much more of it might be secured than is 

 commonly accomplished or even attempted in these 

 gardens. At present, we can offer only a few hints, 

 and these rather in the way of pointing out faults to be 

 amended, than as a full exposition of a subject of some 

 intricacy, and requiring a considerable amount of minu.te 

 detail. 



The site of the plant-houses is a matter of ruling im- 

 portance in the arrangement of the several parts of a 



