LAYING-OUT OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN. 177 



ticular spot, tlie range, for example, miglit be tlirown 

 into divisions of lean-to or span-roofed houses of greater 

 or less extent, placed at such distances as not to shade 

 each other. These might be made to abut against a 

 wall running east and west ; and on this wall might be 

 formed glazed corridors between the divisions commu- 

 nicating with the main structures, and uniting the whole 

 into one general range of ornamental glass. A number 

 of other arrangements on similar principles might be 

 suggested : we merely hint at them, to show that those 

 disjointed accumulations of plant-houses, set do-svn ap- 

 parently at hap-hazard, and not unfrequently seen in 

 ill-arranged nurseries, are not at all necessarily incident 

 to the botanic garden, and ought therefore to be sedu- 

 lously avoided. Perhaps some of the faults of this kind, 

 to be found in better establishments, are to be ascribed 

 to the circumstance that the buildings in question were 

 after- thoughts. 



The next error to which it is needful to advert is the 

 too-common practice of planting mixed belts of trees 

 along the exterior boundary walls. These are generally 

 unnecessary ; for in a botanic garden there is no need of 

 that seclusion which is often desirable in the viUa. At 

 the same time, the moderate veiling of the walls, and 

 the seeming of a proper degree of shelter, .render the 

 grouping and massing of trees and shrubs indispensable. 

 This want can be nearly, if not completely, supplied by 

 the sldlfol distribution of the arboretum. The arrange- 

 ment of trees and shrubs should be such as to throw 

 them into groups towards the external walls in some 

 places, and towards the interior of the gTounds in 

 others : by this means a variety of open spaces, both in 

 front of the walls and in the centre, wiU be left for col- 



I 3 



