SEPTEMBER. 
213 
' system is particularly adapted. A little of everything arranged according to size 
will } r ield a never-failing source of interest, and furnish abundant material for the 
bouquet service of the family. Grass, and a few shrubby evergreen plants if well 
kept, should be largely introduced into these suburban gardens, for it affords 
a never-failing source of enjoyment even after the flowers are all “ faded and 
gone.” 
The reason why there is an objection to small beds of diverse forms is because 
* there is such a conglomeration of masses without that unity of design, or that 
uniformity of contour which the practised eye looks for in all artificial combina¬ 
tions. There are many methods now practised of planting a parallellogram, a 
square, a circle, an oval, or any other form, which have a far more imposing effect, 
and evince far greater skill on the part of the gardener than filling a given number 
of geometrical beds. Take a parallellogram for example, introduce so many convex 
circles at regular distances lengthways; let the groundwork be one colour, the 
back and front row of the border two other dissimilar colours ; the panels (circles) 
another colour, or it may be a series of colours ; and if the plants do well you have 
a most simple but a most charming design. This can be altered every year with¬ 
out lifting Box or gravel, which it would be necessary to do in order to have a 
change of design in any Box flower garden. 
Lovers of herbaceous plants and florists’ flowers need be in no way alarmed 
that their particular pets will be ignored. Why, we are recruiting our numbers 
with various old herbaceous plants such as the variegated Arabis, and Beilis, Cen- 
taurea ragusina, Perifla, Tritomas and such like. As to florists’ flowers, the 
Dahlia, Hollyhock, and Pansy, are all first-class plants in their way, and form & 
pleasing feature. There is no enmity displayed unless to such plants as are not 
suitable for massing in summer and autumn. There are spots in every garden 
where the whole race of plants whether native or exotic, or at least so many of 
them as suit the inclinations of each individual, can grow without offending the 
taste of the most fastidious. We predict, therefore, for modern flower gardening 
a steady advancement and increased popularity .—{West of Scotland Horticultural 
Magazine.) 
OUR MONTHLY CHRONICLE. 
Royal Horticultural Society. —The fol -1 
lowing letter has been addressed to the Exhi¬ 
bition Committee by Sir Joseph Paxton, 
M.P.:— 
“7, Pall Mall East, London, July 20, 1864. 
“ Sir,— Having been requested to give my 
opinion as to the nature and character of 
Exhibitions which the Royal Horticultural 
Society should encourage for the true advance¬ 
ment of Horticulture and its accompanying 
sciences, I have drafted out this letter, in 
order to form a foundation, or data, on which 
this matter can be discussed, and, I trust, 
with a good result. 
“1. No doubt the result of the Society’s 
Exhibitions has, in many respects, been very 
advantageous to the caus^ of Horticulture, 
particularly the earlier ones. They have 
encouraged great improvements in the cul¬ 
ture and management of plants, particularly 
in such plants as can be produced in flower 
at what may be called the London fashion¬ 
able season; but they have by no means 
been productive of unmixed good. They 
have brought into existence an unnatural 
and artificial condition of things, which is 
not only objected to in the interest of gar¬ 
deners themselves, but is also opposed to the 
interests of the public, by causing what may 
be termed a spasmodic effort and exertion, 
which at other seasons of the year is unem¬ 
ployed and, to a great degree, unproductive. 
I may illustrate this by stating that a good 
many years ago (and the same state of things 
now exists to a certain extent), I called to see 
a first-class London garden, forgetting that it 
was one of the exhibition days, and I found 
only about six or eight plants in the garden, 
the others having all been trained, like a 
horse, for racing, and had been taken to the 
show to win the stakes. In the same season, 
some time after this, I called again, and 
found the plants, having been their round of 
racing, all flowerless, and beginning to be 
placed under training for the next season for 
the same purpose; and this training was 
effected by keeping some plants back and 
forcing others, so that they might all flower 
together, and such plants as would not bear 
this treatment were not cultivated. 
“ 2. Every one, of course, says he has a 
right to do what he likes with his own plants, 
which I do not deny; and if a gentleman 
does not mind being ten months in the year 
