450 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING, 
sub-classes, and about two hundred and twenty orders, in the natural 
arrangement of plants. Numerically considered, these distinctions are 
no more than what an area of from eight to ten acres would, with the 
branching and inflections of the walks and paths, suffice to contain, 
supposing they were all hardy ; and in a botanic garden, every such 
distinction should be ostensibly apparent, by divisions and subdivisions 
on the general face of the ground, and in the arrangement of the plants. 
But another question occurs ~ 
How far is systematic botany necessary in a public garden ? I have 
already alluded to the probable advantages of such amalgamation; but 
I fear that, as in all gardens the eye must be delighted by harmonious 
associations, it would be impossible to create anything like harmony of 
gradation by the juxta-position of either the orders or genera of the 
Jussieuan system. Scientific associations yield a mental pleasure, and 
would delight the few, but would be unheeded by the many , if beauty 
of disposition were at the same time disregarded. This difficulty can 
only be obviated by planting in radiating lines from some common centre, 
and by accurate labelling. > The great number of tropical plants which 
compose many of the Jussieuan orders renders it almost impossible 
to make a full display of the natural system in the open air in this 
country. 
This fact has often suggested the idea of laying out a public garden 
geographically. Suppose a given piece of ground of any extent, and 
in shape a parallelogram, ranging east and west. Suppose this divided 
transversely into live unequal parts, to represent the live zones of the 
globe; and, for the sake of more distinct classification, let the ground 
be divided longitudinally into six parts, also unequal. A broad gravel 
%valk may occupy the middle from end to end, at which are the prin¬ 
cipal entrance gates, opening under massive arches of rock-work. These 
arches and the spaces behind, though necessarily narrow, will easily 
hold all the mosses and lichens which are known to inhabit the frigid 
zones, or the remains of either animals or vegetables found within 
those limits, or on the immediate confines of the northern and southern 
temperate zones. 
Suppose we enter at the east gate, our view is directly along the 
middle walk, thronged as it would often be by company, together with 
parts of the hot-houses, &c. On either hand would appear the hardy 
herbs, and shrubs, and trees, from the southern parts of the south 
temperate zone, namely, Australia, Cape of Good Hope, and South 
America; the herbaceous plants on the borders next the walk; beyond 
these the shrubs; and behind these last the trees, so as to form a rising 
bank of various foliage. This division, owing to the paucity of trees 
