A STROLL THROUGH THE GARDEN — MARCH 
101 
all the floricultural world objects; the objec- 
tions are only the complaints of idlers and 
sloths, men who object to anything that gives 
trouble or requires perseverance. Let the 
florists once take up the sweet violet as they did 
the pansy, and see how soon there will be an 
approach to a circular cupped flower ; see how 
soon they will find in a batch of seedlings 
some with thicker or smoother petals than 
others; and, once the improvement begun, it is 
very difficult to say where it will end. With 
these qualities pointed out to his attention, let 
the seedling raiser watch his bed and preserve 
anything from among them that exhibits the 
least improvement. Is there one among the 
whole with a thicker petal ? put it aside. Is 
there one with the petals closer together than 
usual ? save it. Is there a flower rounder ? 
select it for that one point. In short, save 
any one that exhibits the slightest improve- 
ment upon any one point ; make much of it ; 
and having selected only such as show some 
favourable point, destroy the rest, and save 
the seed of the improved ones to produce 
another year still greater improvements, and 
as the new ones beat the old ones let them 
take the place of the old ones, and a few 
seasons will materially advance the flower. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
The violet is such a universal favourite 
that it should always be sown in wildernesses, 
in large borders udder the trees, by tb< 
of drives up to a mansion, at the edg< 
belts and plantation i, and in all the oth< i 
neglected places about an estate. The air 
should be redolent of its sweet , it hould 
occupy a space in all the shady nooks, fol the 
drawing-room should be supplied each morn- 
ing with abundance of its flowers, and no 
place where they will grow should be without 
them ; once sown ihey require no more care 
in those waste places, because every plant 
that thrives will spread enormously, and if 
they be not burned up with the BUD they an; 
sure to flourish. How many fine estates abound 
in shady walks and drives, totally neglected as 
to flowers and other attributes of a garden, 
where one day to turn the soil hen' and there, 
and beslow a few plants or seeds of the violet 
would give a charm to many wealthy people 
wholly unknown. The general disposition to 
do no more than they are obliged to do, 
operates greatly against the preservation of 
those natural beauties which, however insig- 
nificant in themselves, yield a charm in com- 
bination Avith other features. A bed of violet- 
nearamansion, surrounded by gorgeous exotics 
and fragrant aromatic plants, might indeed 
seem nothing, if not out of place ; but in the re- 
tired shades of the richly wooded domain, with 
nothing but the humble daffodil for its com- 
panion, the violet asserts its empiie and main- 
tains its sway. Never then neglect the violet. 
A STROLL THROUGH THE GARDEN, 
BY A TUTOR AND HIS PUPIL, 
The progress of vegetation in this month 
is so rapid, in a mild spring, that you will 
find, my young friend, much moi-e pleasure in 
a ramble through the garden than you have 
experienced in January or February, or, in- 
deed, in both combined. The blooms in the 
ground have become more varied and general, 
and those on the trees begin to make a striking 
feature in the scenery. But, under glass, 
there is an endless variety to gratify the lovers 
of flowers. The morning is promising, and 
we may calculate on a pleasant walk. We 
can take the flower garden this morning, and 
at any rate visit the houses, for they are of the 
most consequence just now. 
Observe the lawn during the cold months : 
the coarse grass only grows, for the finer 
varieties make scarcely any advance. The 
consequence is, that the surface is uneven ; 
large tufts, in different places, have made it 
uneven. Many persons neglect mowing till 
the spring is further advanced ; but as soon as 
the grass becomes uneven it should be mowed, 
whether in winter or summer ; for by neglect- 
ing it until the more hardy kinds of grass get 
IN THE MONTH OF MAPCR. 
too much the ascendancy, the places where 
you observe those tufts of higher growth 
would be of another colour when mowed, 
because only the stems would be seen. You 
will, therefore, very soon see the men set t" 
work in mowing and rolling the whole of the 
lawn. The earth of the clumps and borders 
will also be turned up as soon as the herba- 
ceous plants which die down in winter are all 
through the surface, and that will be before 
this month is out Most of them, indeed, are 
through the ground now. It is necessary to 
delay the stirring of the ground in which bulbs 
and many herbaceous plants grow, until they 
are all fairly above the surface ; for however 
careful you may be with labels to represent 
the spot where particular plants are, you can- 
not effectually fork over the beds and borders 
until you can go close to every thing ; and 
operating, as it were, in the dark,half the roots 
might be damaged. ^Ye may expect, there- 
fore, in a day or two, to see these places nicely 
turned up and raked smooth. The crocuses, 
early tulips, hepaticas, and daffodils, look gay; 
the hyacinths are showing their spikts of 
