ON DISPOSING PLANTS IN SHRUBBERIES AND PLANT-HOUSES. 
169 
A most striking illustration of the evils which attend this old system of arrangement 
was brought before the writer in a walk, a few months back, through the handsome large 
stove recently erected at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. In this noble house has been 
placed one of the most magnificent assemblages of tropical forms of which it is possible to 
conceive in a country like England. Splendid and extraordinary foliage and habit meet 
one at every step, and the utmost verdure of healthiness prevails. But a most unhappy 
adherence to the old mode of arrangement spoils and neutralises the effect of the whole ; 
so rigidly, indeed, has the plan been carried out, that scarcely a leaf seems to have been 
permitted to stray beyond the prescribed angle, and the eye travels along a bank of foliage 
replete with the most ornamental and elegant of forms, with about as much interest as if 
they were in a common shrubbery border. 
Nor is the absence of anything like a picturesque or tasteful effect, where such a multitude 
of fine materials exist, the only consequence of such an arrangement to be deplored. For 
each plant, placed thus only to show its upper leaves, will of course soon become — what 
many of them have already done from a course of such treatment — a mere tuft of leaves 
with a long hare stem, so that its real character will never he exhibited. 
It should be observed, however, that this particular instance is only mentioned for the 
sake of exemplifying what has been previously said, and because it appeared so glaring an 
illustration, in so large a house, with such rich and ample means of furnishing it appro- 
priately, of the great disadvantages of the system we are now condemning. 
But these remarks will probably he of little general use, unless, with a description of 
the evil itself, the way in which it may be remedied is not also lightly traced out. In 
plant-houses, little of course can be done in regard to the form of the stages, where stages 
are employed, as these must, in many instances at least, be composed of straight lines. 
Hence, where the house and the plants are large enough, a much better effect may he 
obtained by planting out the specimens in beds, or placing them in pots or tubs on the 
floor, dispensing altogether with stages. In such cases, the greatest variety may he easily 
realised, and as pleasing a result produced as by the tasteful disposal of groups of shrubs 
and single specimens on lawns. Still, there are few houses, comparatively, which admit of 
such an arrangement. 
In smaller ornamental houses, where room is not so much an object as elegance and 
display, and where the building is glazed all round, as it should be, except where it adjoins 
the mansion, something may be done in the way of relieving the tiresome sameness of 
straight stages, by breaking them up into a greater number of various figures, such as circles, 
ovals, octagons, &c. These, if nicely fitted to each other, and adapted to the style of the 
erection, will accomplish much towards giving a varied and pleasing aspect to the interior 
of a conservatory. 
Nevertheless, the best mode of rendering a plant-house as attractive as possible in the 
outline and irregularity of its ornaments, is to arrange the plants on the stages, whether 
these are straight or otherwise, so that here and there the best and finest specimens shall 
jut out, at very varied intervals, on the different shelves of the stage, and that the interspaces 
shall be filled with plants differing as much as practicable in size, shape, colour, &c. 
Towards the front, again, particular points may be rendered more prominent by placing 
several large specimens together. Climbers, trained to trellises fixed in the pot, will also 
be very useful for placing about in this way. And with climbers hanging in a more or less 
profuse and clustering manner from several parts of the roof, trailing plants and low 
climbers unsupported by stakes, suspended in the air by wire 'or small chains, and in the 
case of stoves, plants growing in moss or on logs of wood against any moist shaded wall of 
the house, almost as much freeness and elegance may be attained as will give to the place 
a natural appearance, and banish all kinds of stiffness and formality. 
Successfully to diversify the character of out-door shrubbery borders is a much less 
difficult matter, although the execution of it requires some taste. Here the main thing is 
to place advantageously the larger-growing kinds of plants, especially the evergreens ; for 
if the outlines are merely broken by deciduous shrubs and low trees, their effect will be 
hardly appreciable in winter. It matters comparatively little as far as the desirableness 
