THE 
MANUAL OF GARDENING. 
CHAPTER I. 
A love of flowers is one of the earliest of our tastes, and cer- 
tainly one of the most innocent. The cultivation of flowers, 
while it forms an elegant amusement, is a most healthy and invi- 
gorating pursuit. Unlike hunting, fishing, shooting, or similar 
rural amusements, it inflicts no suffering on any of the animal 
creation, and merely aids nature in her efforts to make the world 
beautiful to the eye, as the fruits are pleasant to the taste. The 
flower garden, while it agreeably occupies the time, does not 
impose a heavy tax upon the pocket; and there are very few 
flowers but what may be cultivated to as great perfection in the 
garden of the peasant, as of the peer. It is a taste, too, which is 
well adapted to the female character, and affords much rational 
amusement to the recluse, who by choice or chance is separated 
“from the crowded haunts of men, in busy cities pent.” The 
pleasure of the cultivator of flowers is not confined to the gratifi- 
cation of beholding the expanded flower, when it spreads forth 
its glories to the meridian sun; every stage of its growth has 
been a source of delight, from the moment the seedling but peeped 
above the ground, to the period of its perfect development; and 
a flower which has been reared by one’s own hand, is viewed 
with tenfold delight, compared to one, the growth of which has 
not been witnessed or provided for.. 
LAYING OUT THE GARDEN. — A garden is an artificial 
appendage to an artificial object. A flower is not a production 
of unaided nature, nor can a garden ever be supposed to have 
sprung up spontaneously : therefore all that has been said against 
straight walks and square beds, can only prove that a garden 
may be too precisely laid out, and never demonstrate that it 
should assume the appearance of a wood, or a wilderness. Cir- 
cles, squares, ovals and angles, are all pleasing figures, and are 
all strictly appropriate to the flower garden, which is a spot 
where art and taste unite to display to advantage the charms of 
nature. 
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