420 
GEOMETRICAL FLOWER GARDENS. 
chalky soil, thrives if budded on the Almond ; 
whereas on clay soils it is only successful 
on the Plum ; and in sandy soils, where it 
would not grow on any other, it flourished 
when worked on the mountain Ash. We do 
not vouch for all the facts in illustration, hut 
we have good reason to know that it is no use 
attempting to grew fruit trees'upon some stocks, 
while they luxuriate upon others. The author, 
however, goes somewhat further. He says: 
"A variety of fruit which is found rather tender 
for a certain climate, or a particular neighbour- 
hood, is frequently acclimatized by grafting it 
on a native stock of very hardy habits;" and 
in illustration of this, he gives us a fact which 
only illustrates the former position. He says : 
'- Thus, near the sea-coast, where the finer 
plums thrive badly, (he means, perhaps, do not 
thrive at all,) we have seen them greatly im- 
proved by being worked on the Beach-plum, 
a native stock, adapted to the spot." Now this 
does not affect the question of whether a ten- 
der subject is made hardy ; it only adds one 
more proof, that stocks must be adapted to 
the locality before anything that is worked 
on them can flourish. The chapters on Cul- 
ture are very well done, and for persons in 
the American States they may be useful. 
The history of the different fruits, and the 
descriptive catalogue, are full of interesting 
detail ; not so much, perhaps, for those who 
have read the Horticultural Society's volume on 
the same subject, but nevertheless, it is one of 
the best volumes that we have seen on the sub- 
ject of Horticulture, by an American author. In 
the description of the Apple, the following 
account is given of the dimensions and capa- 
bilities of two trees, which are so far off, that 
we would rather believe all about it, than have 
to go and see them : — 
" The Apple is usually a very hardy and 
rather slow growing fruit tree, with a low 
spreading, rather irregular head, and bears an 
abundance of white blossoms tinged with red. 
In a wild state it is very long-lived, but the 
finest garden sorts usually live about fifty or 
eighty years ; though by proper care, they 
may be kept healthy and productive much 
longer. Although the apple generally forms 
a tree of medium growth, there are many 
specimens in this country of enormous size. 
Among others we recollect two in the grounds 
of Mr. Hall of Raynham, Ehode Island, 
which, ten years ago, were 130 years old ; the 
trunk of one of these trees then measured, at 
one foot from the ground, thirteen feet two 
inches, and the other twelve feet two inches. 
The trees bore that season about thirty or 
forty bushels, but in the year 17.80 they 
together bore one hundred and one bushels of 
apples. In Duxbury, Plymouth county, Mass., 
is a tree which in its girth measures twelve 
feet five inches, and which has yielded in a 
single season 121^ bushels." — P. 57. 
We may return to a notice of some points 
at a future page, but in the mean time we 
must do the author the justice to say he has, 
with compiling, and with his own practical 
observations, turned out a volume very credit- 
able to himself, and to the science of Horti- 
culture ; and that the illustrations of the de- 
scriptive catalogue give a capital idea of the 
forms of the various fruits. 
GEOMETRICAL FLOWER GARDENS. 
THE NECESSITY OF PLANTING: THE BEDS 
UNIFORMLY. 
We observe, among the directions for plant- 
ing these things, that uniformity seems but 
little attended to; yet the entire beauty of such 
gardens depends on a rigid observance of this 
one feature. What is the use of a uniform 
figure, if it is not to be planted with uniform 
colours ? We observe, for instance, in a very 
recent publication, as well as in many which 
are considered authenticated works, a series 
of subjects recommended for the different 
beds, in which not two beds are to be planted 
alike, so that not only is there to be a total 
disregard of what effect is to be produced at 
the best time of the year, but a determination 
that at no one period shall the whole be in bloom 
together, and all the beds in a circle are to 
exhibit different stages of growth when out of 
bloom, and not two alike when in flower. 
Great variety ought not to be the aim in a 
flower garden. Suppose, in a geometrical 
garden with a centre, and four-and-twenty 
beds, of some form or other, all round this 
centre, — which centre, by the way, ought to be a 
circle of gravel, that a person might stand 
and see the effect, — these twenty-four beds 
would consist of four sixes, and these sixes 
might be divided into two threes, by planting 
each six alternately with two subjects. The 
most dwarf subjects should be nearest the 
centre ; but nothing that is not naturally 
dwarf should be used at all. In early spring, 
bulbs would form beautiful subjects for a brief 
but showy period ; but as this paper is not so 
much to go into the detail, as to insist on 
general principles, we need only say that six 
of these beds, forming equal distances all 
round the centre, might be alternately blue and 
white ; another six, red and yellow ; another 
six might be mixed with all the colours ; and 
the outer six all one colour, whichever could 
be best done at the time ; but our fashionable 
writers, after providing a figure perfectly 
geometrical, will have all the colours in one 
circle of beds, by which means the eye is 
offended with scarlet on one side, and white 
on another, completely overbalancing and 
