214 
THE FLORIST. 
venience, luxury and use, os well as for making a beautiful picture. 
It is to express civilisation, and care, and design, and refinement. It 
is a blending of art with nature, an attempt to interfuse the two, or to 
produce something intermediate between the pure state of either, which 
shall combine the vagaries of the one with the regularity of the other. 
That beauty should be the ultimate aim of every operation of gardening 
in landscape. There may be different opinions as to what constitutes 
beauty, and of what ingredients it is made up; some affirming that its 
chief elements are those of form—others, that it consists solely in asso¬ 
ciation. We may assume that it is to be found in both. Beauty in 
gardens is not by cultivating only a few particular species of plants, and 
not merely harbouring, but cherishing, a dislike to all others. A garden 
denuded of half or three-fourths of its proper ornaments is much in the 
same predicament as an individual with only a portion of his ordinary 
garments. It is imperfectly clothed, insufficiently finished, weak in the 
expression of the beautiful. And should be pretty obviousl}^ expressed 
in that part of every garden which is in the immediate vicinity of the 
house, terraces, straight lines of walks, avenues of trees or shrubs, rows 
of flower-beds, and geometrical figures, with all kinds of architectural 
ornaments. The artist’s taste will be shown in his “ acquirements” in 
concealing all its manifestations in the little arts, and ingenious con¬ 
trivances, and kindly cares which embellish gardens, as they do life, 
without ever revealing the machinery of their action, and of which the 
effect is seen and felt in their results, rather than their process—in the 
whole rather than the detail. A beautiful, quiet-looking garden, like a 
well-educated individual, presents no particular feature that can attract 
special notice; all is smooth, easy, agreeable. And perhaps this quiet¬ 
ness of expression is the truest index of “ duties, acquirements, and 
abilities,” refinement and taste. 
The artist’s “abilities” assist him in the greatest of practical diffi¬ 
culties w'hich an artist in landscape has to contend with—his “ acquire¬ 
ments” in dealing with the picturesque, Smoothness and regularity of 
treatment are so thoroughly what an ordinary gardener is accustomed 
to, that it requires no small effort to enlighten him as to the mode of 
achievement of anything really beautiful in the way of curved lines and 
undulations. But when ruggedness and the appearance of rude natural¬ 
ness a^e sought, it is indeed hard to obtain a practical operator in either 
architect, surveyor, civil engineer, or draughtsman and “ landscape- 
painter.” 
. The practical gardener in landscape knows nothing imparts a greater 
air of refinement and gentility to a garden than a certain amount of 
riclmess and polish. His “ accjuirements” teach him the first of these 
may be attained by means of a tasteful selection of plants and flowers, 
and by the sparing use of appropriate architectural decorations. Every¬ 
thing straggling or ragged, all that produces confusion, and, as a rule, 
all angularity and harshness, are completely opposed to it. 
Modern tendencies in gardening have been too much awav from its 
character as an art, and the more it is restored to its legitimate position, 
the more nearly will it be brought into kindred with architecture. All 
architects endeavour to extend their business; for as a house and a 
