HINTS FOR THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
235 
spring, before the roots have taken good hold of the soil, or the stems cover the 
surface. Well-foliaged shoots are a great means of preventing evaporation after 
they have once covered the soil, and hence they render an excess of moisture still 
more hurtful. In our climate, moreover, the occurrence of long-protracted 
aridity is less prevalent than wet and cloudy weather. We are rarely visited 
with such seasons as the spring of 1844 ; and when they do occur, it is an easier 
matter to shade our choice things, or employ some means of preventing eva- 
poration (which is always preferable to repeated waterings) during their con- 
tinuance, than it is to be ready with a protection to ward off every shower. 
Some cultivators lessen evaporation by mulching their borders, others by covering 
the soil immediately about the plants with small pieces of slate ; we have also 
seen shallow beds of scarlet Pelargoniums, and similar strong-growing plants, 
covered for the season with small round whitish pebbles from the sea-shore, for 
the same purpose ; and others again, cover the whole bed with mats for a few 
hours in the middle of clear sunny days, and during dry winds, till the plants 
are firmly established. Upon the whole, then, we have little to fear from 
a dry soil, compared with the evils that arise from one surcharged with 
moisture. 
We are fully persuaded, too, that the borders of the flower-garden are 
generally made both too deep and of richer materials than the plants demand. 
The proneness of half-hardy plants to assume a redundancy of vigour in the 
open garden rather requires some reduction of the means by which it is engen- 
dered, than to increase stimulatives to further it. Flowers are the main thing 
looked for, and we only want a sufficient growth to promote their development, 
and to cover the bed with shoots and foliage. The effects of a deep soil are 
merely to allure the roots away from the surface, and gorge the entire system 
with water, which cannot be assimilated, and is hence opposed to the furtherance 
of a floriferous state. Some plants, as the Tropceolum tuberosum, Nierembergia 
linearis, Scarlet Pelargoniums, Lobelia gracilis and other small-growing species, 
Mesembryanthemum tricolor ', and the hardy dwarf Gentians, require but a very 
slight covering of soil, if a strata of lime-rubbish, charcoal, coal-ashes, broken 
bricks, and similar bodies is laid beneath. At Ohatsworth many plants have 
existed throughout the winter in the raised architectural beds in the Italian garden, 
whilst the same kinds have perished in the adjacent borders. 
Another thing which ought to be studied is the contrivance of screens on the 
most exposed sides, particularly when the situation is subject to rough winds. 
By recommending shelter, however, we must not be interpreted to include shade, 
nor yet to advise a confined situation. Few conditions can be less favourable 
than a close stagnant atmosphere in a low place. The only shelter necessary is 
merely sufficient to break the force of the strong sweeping winds which mutilate 
tender things so excessively. In a moist place, in the bottom of a valley, a 
considerable play of air is useful in carrying off the noxious vapours and moisture 
