166 
THE LADIES’ MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
adornment so deficient, that a green meadow is a more delightful object: 
there nature alone, without the aid of art, spreads her verdure carpets, 
spontaneously embroidered with many pretty plants and pleasing flowers, 
far more inviting than such an immured nothing. And as noble fountains, 
grottoes, statues, &c., are excellent ornaments and marks of magnificence; 
so all such dead works in gardens, ill done, are little better than blocks in 
the way to interrupt sight, but not at all to satisfy the understanding. 
A choice collection of living beauties, rare plants, flowers, and fruits, are 
indeed the wealth, glory, and delight of a garden, and the most absolute 
indications of the owner’s ingenuity; whose skill and care is chiefly re¬ 
quired in their choice, culture, and position.” 
The above is an extract from Ray’s Flora, which was published in 1665, 
and was a very celebrated work on gardening in former times. I will now 
give my readers an extract from the American Gardener’s Magazine for 
1840, to show them the opinions entertained by an American on the same 
subject. 
44 The laying-out of a flower-knot, or system of beds in a flower-garden, 
is one of the first feats in which the young gardener undertakes to show 
off his abilities; and being one which affords the most ample scope for the 
play of fancy, is therefore, perhaps, the one in which he is most likely to 
manifest a display of bad taste. Even where the design is of the most 
happy conception, and the plotting beautiful upon paper, the difficulty of 
defining and preserving accurately the outline of the figure, when practi¬ 
cally employed, will often quite destroy the anticipated effect. Edge- 
boards of wood, so thin as to be easily bent to the required form, are 
commonly the first material employed. These are soon warped out of 
shape, or quickly rot, and impart a deleterious principle to the soil in con¬ 
tact with them ; and a very common fault is to have them too wide, so 
that the plants in the bed suffer from drought, while the paths between 
them resemble gutters more than walks for pleasure. Bricks, or tiles 
moulded expressly for the purpose, are next resorted to, and if sunk, so 
that the earth in the beds shall not be more than from one to two inches 
above the level of the paths, they serve pretty well for some time. But so 
soon as they begin to crumble from the influence of frost, or are covered 
with green mould or moss, as they soon will be in moist or shady exposures, 
they become offensive to the eye, though not, like the first, injurious to 
the soil. A living margin, therefore, becomes the next and last expe¬ 
dient : and, indeed, it may be regarded as one of the last steps in the 
march of horticultural refinement. To adapt such a line of vegetation to 
the size and form of the bed, and make it harmonise in every point of 
reference with the group of plants within, requires a cultivated delicacy 
