ON ARRANGING PLANTS IN CONSERVATORIES. 
17 
smaller and better plants. Or the filling of the structure is confided to a nursery- 
man, who naturally sends his most unwieldy plants, not merely from a desire to 
get rid of them, but because a notion seems to prevail that the larger the specimens, 
the sooner will a good effect be produced. ■ 
Species, again, that are in themselves beautiful, and bear a profusion of blossoms, 
are often, when a choice is really made, fixed upon without considering their habits, 
or to what height they will grow ; and the whole are planted heterogeneously, and 
more with respect to their size at the time, than to that they will eventually reach. 
One uniform result is experienced from all these bad practices. In a few years 
from the time of forming a collection, two or three of the stronger and more rampant 
sorts have outstripped the rest, and occupy of themselves the whole of the space 
which ought to have been covered with the greatest possible variety. Rare or 
weakly specimens, which are mostly of the highest value, unable to struggle with 
their luxuriant neighbours, are suppressed, and finally perish. 
Our mode of planting a conservatory would be widely different from the fore- 
going. We would choose those species which are of a shrubby character, and 
which rarely grow higher than six or eight feet ; though the majority should be 
even smaller. Arranging them with reference to their known habits, the tallest- 
growing should undoubtedly be placed in the centre of the bed, or the back of the 
border, with an occasional deviation to create variety. And for specimens, we 
would prefer young and small plants, unless they had been kept dwarf and com- 
pact, avoiding all that are diffuse, or have long bare stems, as no after pruning 
will suffice to reduce them to the desired symmetry and regularity. 
Notwithstanding, however, all the care that may be bestowed on the preparation 
of soil and the choice of plants, it is found that something is lacking in order to 
confine each specimen within its appropriate limits, and to enable the culturist to 
give to each the soil, water, &c, it individually demands. To fill up this deficiency, 
a friend of great experience has favoured us with an outline of a plan which is as 
simple as it is effectual, and which he has seen executed with the most gratifying 
success. It consists in dividing the compartment to be planted into numerous 
distinct pieces of a square figure, and apportioning each of these in size to the 
capacity of the plant destined to fill it ; leaving a larger space than would seem 
necessary for a small plant, if by that means its growth can be promoted, and con- 
tracting the spot apparently indispensable for a vigorous species, that its disposition 
to luxuriate may be restrained. Around all these divisions an impenetrable wall 
is to be made ; and it is immaterial whether bricks, thin stone, slate, or any other 
substance be used for the purpose, so long as it is hard enough to repel the roots, 
and tolerably durable. By this means, weakly but ornamental plants can be assisted, 
and the stronger kinds kept in due bounds ; each can have the sort of soil and the 
quantity of it that it is presumed to need ; an independent system of drainage may 
be formed for all ; and watering can be conducted with the most complete dis- 
crimination. The plan is, on the whole, one of the most valuable we have ever 
VOL. IX. NO. XCVII. * D 
