OHAFTEH III. 
THE BEDDING SYSTEM, AND THE PLANTS REQUIRED FOR IT. 
The “ bedding system,” as commonly understood, is an idea 
only half developed. It is very much to be feared it wiil 
never be known as a complete system, but that it is doomed 
to remain an example of arrested development, so far as the 
mass of the people are concerned. Let us consider for a 
moment the case of a geometric garden occupying a con¬ 
spicuous position, and intended as one of the principal, per¬ 
haps the principal embellishment of the garden. As a design 
in black earth, and green box, and grey gravel, its merits are 
not worth considering; but we are always prepared to con¬ 
sider its merits in connection with its purpose, and will pass 
judgment upon it when filled with flowers, just as we would 
prefer to judge a picture-frame with the picture in it. Well, 
we will wait until the month of May. By the end of that 
merry month of flowers the beds are all filled; but the plants 
are puny bits of things, and must have time to “ make them¬ 
selves.” So we will wait until June. By about Midsummer- 
day, a pretty fair sprinkling of flowers will be seen in the 
geometric garden, and we may then make an estimate of its 
artistic value as a design, as well as of the skill employed in 
planting it. From Midsummer-day to Michaelmas-day, when 
usually the first autumnal frost occurs, the best of the 
summer bedders are extremely gay. For just three months, 
in fact, a few days more or less, according to the season, the 
parterre planted agreeably to custom is brilliant in the ex¬ 
treme, and for the remaining nine months of the year it is a 
dreary blank. It is like a display of fireworks, glorious while 
it lasts, but “ere we can say, ‘Behold how beautiful’fitis 
gone,” and the darkness that follows is rendered more pro¬ 
found by contrast with the light that dazzled us. Yet, for 
the sake of this temporary glory, ten thousand gardens, that 
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