THE AMATEUR’S FLOWER GARDEN. 
5 
turf, and other permanent features, to which the flowers will 
in due time serve for embellishment, and, in return for this 
service, have the advantage of a sufficient extent of leafage 
and verdure to heighten their beauties by harmonious sur¬ 
roundings. A garden rich in trees and shrubs, with ample 
breadth of well-kept lawn, will be enjoyable at all seasons 
without the aid of flowers. A few simple borders, well 
stocked with mixed herbaceous plants, such as primulas, 
pseonies, lilies, phloxes, hollyhocks, and carnations, would, in 
many instances, afford more real pleasure and ever-changing 
interest than the most gorgeous display of bedding plants 
hemmed in between two glaring walls, or exposed on a great 
treeless, turfless place like the blazing fire at the mouth of a 
coal-pit. But given the good permanent substratum, the 
well-kept garden of greenery, with its family trees and its 
interesting plants that one can talk to, and its snug nooks 
filled with violets and primroses, and its mossy banks that en¬ 
tice the early sloping sunshine, and its cool coverts, where ease 
may be enjoyed amid the summer’s heat, and then a brave 
display of flowers becomes the crowning feature. The argu¬ 
ment may be summed up in this—that flowers alone do not 
constitute a garden ; and when a garden has been provided 
to receive them, the display should be adapted in extent 
and character to the situation and its surroundings. 
A considerable number of features are recognized as proper 
to a flower garden. In respect of formation and management, 
these may be considered as separate and distinct, and hereafter 
it will be necessary to isolate them. But in the general plan 
they should all be intimately related, as natural and necessary 
developments of a comprehensive idea. The outer boundaries 
of tree and shrub, the intersecting walks, the belts of ever¬ 
greens, the mixed borders, the air-inviting lawns—these com¬ 
bine in their relationships to create the want of a parterre; 
and if the garden is one of ample extent, several distinct 
displays of flowers, or rather several little gardens, will be 
admissible in consistency, and may be desirable for the 
occupation and entertainment of the owner. 
At this point it seems needful to unfold some elaborate 
plans, but it will be safer to say that the compass of the 
book does not admit of them, and that they would be more 
proper to a treatise on the “ Pleasure Garden,” which this is 
not; for it is only one department of the pleasure garden 
