JULY. 
213 
RHODODENDRON PR^COX. 
This new Rhododendron is stated to be a hybrid raised from R. atro- 
virens, crossed with R. ciiiatum, and has every appearance of having 
been obtained in that way. It forms a dwarf erect openly-branched 
shrub, of a couple of feet in height, with slender twigs leafy at the end. 
The leaves are small, from one to nearly two inches long, oblong-oval 
acute, deep-green, rugosely-veined, and sparingly ciliated. The flowers 
grow in small terminal heads of two or three together, and are of a 
light rosy-lilac, about two inches in diameter, forming a shallow 
expanded self-coloured cup, with rounder overlapping obtuse and 
slightly undulated lobes. Mr. Davis, of Wavertree, by whom it was 
raised, states that it had proved perfectly hardy, having been grown for 
two years in the open ground without the slightest injury from frost; 
and that in this situation it formed a dwarf bush, with dark-green 
leaves about the size of those of the Myrtle, flowering about the end of 
March in great abundance, the blossoms as large as a moderate-sized 
Indian Azalea. The plants, he continued, “ will be found invaluable 
for forcing, from the fact that they may be got in flower at any time 
during the winter months, merely by placing them in a greenhouse. 
The flowers last more than three weeks after expansion, and from the 
peculiar odour of its foliage, which it inherits from its mother, not a 
green-lly will live upon it.” 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
It is plain that they who would imitate nature in gardens, must do so 
in another way than by copying her piecemeal. They ought, indeed, 
to be imitators, but not painters, transcribing her spirit, and not her 
individual expressions—her general countenance or aspect, and not her 
particular features. An artist, to be a painter or a landscape artist, or 
an amateur in either branch, should go to nature to study principles, 
gathering up snatches of scenery, and storing them up in his memory 
or his portfolio for future use. He should note all that pleases him, and 
endeavour to understand how and why it influences his mind. By thus 
filling his brain with numberless beautiful little pictures or images, 
and his intellect with the foundations and sources of pleasure in his art, 
he will come from nature doubly primed to give practical utterance to 
his imaginings, and prepared to embody in a composition the fine touches, 
and a more artistic and spiritual element which he has collected from 
such a variety of sources. All this is his “ duty.” Nature is the great 
school of landscape gardening. It is in her broader teachings and 
general promptings that materials should be gathered for practical use. 
And these, be it remembered, will be solely available in idealising and 
exalting art, in “landscape and picturesque gardens.” This he a'quires 
by industry. 
To regard a garden otherwise than as a work of art, would tend to 
a radical perversion of its nature. A garden is for comfort and con- 
