14 
THE HOME GARB EH. 
The selection of plants for various positions requires 
some judgment, as the beauty of their effect often depends 
on how they are placed ; some showing to better advantage 
if looked down upon, others when on a level with the eye, 
while others, again, must be looked up to. Some accommo¬ 
dating species are satisfactory anywhere. It is a somewhat 
disheartening, but painfully stubborn, fact, that gardening, 
even on the humblest scale, is an art, and those who are 
most scornful over this idea generally belong to the class 
who never succeed. 
With regard to ornamentation generally, “ carpenter 
architecture,” besides being expensive, is altogether out of 
place in small gardens, although harmonious and agreeable 
in the shape of summer-houses and rustic seats where the 
grounds are extensive. “It is quite common,” says a wri¬ 
ter, “to see a little garden, with starveling flower-beds and 
a few shrubs, bestridden by an elaborate, expensive edifice, 
miscalled a summer-house, miscalled an arbor, properly 
called a nuisance.” Another popular delusion prevails that 
empty urns and vases, painted china sets, and ugly statues 
of mythological deities are appropriate to square plots of 
grass and patches of flowers. Suburban gardens are often 
spotted with these things, which are seldom either orna¬ 
mental or useful. A rich urn or vase of some dark color, 
either of bronzed iron or terra-cotta, filled with flowers, is 
a pleasant sight, and may sometimes be used with excellent 
effect, provided the right place, for it is secured. • 
The ornamental properties of decayed tree-stumps, and 
even of half barrels sunk partly in the ground and covered 
above it with strips of bark, are too well known to require 
particular mention; but a rustic wall-pocket against some 
grand old tree is not so common, and may be made an un¬ 
expected thing of beauty with trailing vines and clusters 
of bloom. Vines everywhere is a safe motto ; hence a curv- 
ing-in gate, with a light trellis-work over it for graceful 
