G8 THE COTTAGE GARDENER, May 1. 
last year, say to eight or nine feet, without reducing the ( 
apparent diameter oue inch. This is a grand improve¬ 
ment, which will be new to many thousands of those 
who have good gardens at home ; and as I am going to 
recommend this style of bed for universal use, I shall 
describe it, so that any one may learn how to do it; but 
first of all, I shall give the history of it, as far as I 
know. 
In the year 1843, Lady Middleton suggested this kind 
of bed to me for one of the statues in the garden at 
Shrubland Park. It was a bust on a pedestal, and 
might be seven or eight feet high. I think her ladyship 
told me that such beds were in use at Beton, by the 
Earl Brownlow, but I could not then see the advantage 
of it, and opposed it that year and the year following, 
but in 1845, Lady Middleton would not be opposed any 
longer by an obstinate old gardener, and I made the 
bed, planted it, and when I saw the effect, I was ashamed 
of my own dullness; but to make up for that, I took 
more pains with that bed every year till 1851, than with 
any bed in that part of the garden, and I can recommend 
it with confidence; hut any one can now see fourteen 
beds on the same plan at the Crystal Palace, though 
the full effect cannot be understood from the Tulips, 
Hyacinths, and Crocuses with which they are now 
planted. Next August will be the time to study it. 
If there is a sun-dial on a pedestal in your garden, a 
ring hed—which is the name of this style of bed—will 
very much improve the looks about the dial, and the 
same, if it is only a flag-staff, or if it is a figure of any 
man or woman, god or goddess, a full length figure, a 
bust, or merely a head, so that it stands on a pedestal 
which is not lower than three feet. It will not answer 
for a figure which stands merely on a plinth, because 
the lower parts of the figure would be hid by the flowers 
in the ring-bed. 
All that settled, the next question is the size, that is, 
the diameter of the pedestal, if it is round, or the 
length of its sides, if it is square. Whatever the size of 
the pedestal, half that size should be in grass, on each 
side of it, for a diameter. It is very important to under¬ 
stand this part, for the whole depends on it. The 
pedestals at the Crystal Palace are square, and about 
five feet high ; the side of the base or plinth is about 
four feet. I only guessed it. Now, what ought to be 
the diameter of the circle of grass on which this sized 
pedestal stands? You will understand,there is a circular 
piece of grass in the middle of a large circular flower¬ 
bed, and a square pedestal in the middle of the grass, 
and the flower-bed is a ring round the whole. The 
width of this ring of flowers, and the diameter of the 
grass circle, are determined by the size of the base of 
the pedestal. The pedestal, being four feet on the side, 
gives two feet of grass on each side of it, making eight 
feet across one side, as a diameter; therefore, the centre 
piece of grass is a circle, whose diameter is eight feet. 
The fiug-bed should be as wide across as the square of 
the pedestal is in length; therefore, the beds at the 
Crystal Palace are just four feet across in every part of 
the ring, instead of being sixteen feet in diameter, if 
the pedestal and grass circle were not in the middle. 
When this ring-bed is full of Geraniums, or plants 
which are taller than Geraniums, a stranger looking at 
it from a short distance cannot see the grass in the 
centre, and lie will think the bed is sixteen feet through, 
for it looks just as big as one of that diameter; so that 
they will have the same effect with fifty plants as one 
hundred plants would give in a circle without the grass in 
the middle. It is for this economical view of the “ ring- 
bed,” that I would recommend it for universal use. I 
know it is all right; and now that it is patronised at the 
Crystal Palace, there can be no longer any doubt about 
the fashionality of it, if there is such a word. 
The fourteen ring-beds are thus planted at the 
Crystal Palace. A single row of Crocuses round the 
outside and round the inside of the ring, and five 
rows of Hyacinths, or seven rows of Tulips, between 
the Crocuses, and all these bulbs are put in as regular as 
compass work. There cannot be less than 20,000 Tulips 
and as many Hyacinths on this establishment at the 
present moment. 
There is no progress to be reported yet in the growth 
of out-door plants since I saw them last September; 
but a great breadth has been planted since then, and 
the plants look as well as newly-planted things generally 
do. The great and heaviest works towards the bottom 
are completed, but there is a vast deal yet to finish ; if 
they will clear up everything by next Christmas it is 
all they can expect. There are about 450 men now 
employed on the different parts. The late laid turf is 
mulched with a good coat of pulverized earth,—an excel¬ 
lent plan. The parts which have been laid down in 
grass, from seeds, look remarkably free from weeds. 
Great care must have been taken in laying clean, fresh 
soil on the top, and the grass-seeds must have been very 
clean and true to kind. Whoever supplied them with 
the seeds may be as proud of their stock as the gar¬ 
deners may be for the care with which they managed 
the ground for the grass. I never saw such work so 
satisfactorily performed. 
The huge beasts before the flood have been painted, 
and look as unearthly as water kelpies. The geological 
strata, in the face of a rugged bank behind them, look 
as if a section of natural strata had been made on pur¬ 
pose ; and there is a stalactic grotto here, where different 
veins of ore run as naturally as they do in the mines. 
The rough bank is traversed by winding walks, with 
many flights of rustic steps, here and there, to answer 
the variations of levels. These steps are fronted with 
larch, about six inches in diameter, with the bark on. 
Here many an amateur will get his eyes opened as to 
how he may cheaply introduce such walks in his own 
declivities. These banks are gay with native Primroses, 
Coltsfoot, and Wood Anemone, which are the natural 
weeds in the woods of Sydenham. Then there are Eox- 
glove, Pilewort, Periwinkles, and such-like, in great 
abundance. 
Then there are block-hanks and rockeries, a wilder¬ 
ness, regular shrubberies, besides beds of the best 
shrubs. When all these have six or seven years’ growth, 
the grounds of the Crystal Palace will be the pride of 
England, and nowhere else to be matched. 
All the basins were low of water, except round the 
“ Antilurians,” as country people say. The great lakes 
below the cascades were quite dry, and the water-pipes 
were being laid down there. It was part of the grand 
sight to have the fountains play in the terrace garden; 
but, unfortunately, that very morning, as they were 
proving the pipes, one of them burst off the capping, and 
spoiled that part of the fun ; but they made such repairs 
as enabled them to play the fountains for a short time 
after the crowds entered the Palace, but very few of us 
could then move to see them. The royal and right royal 
party saw them, however; and we had seen enough 
without them. 
INSIDE THE PALACE. 
The arrangements for heating the Palace was a good 
hit at the first start, judging from the appearance of the 
plants. Every plant in the house looks as well as can 
be, except a few stove plants at the east end ; but even 
here, three or four of the Egyptian Palms, which were 
as dry as skeletons last September, have shot forth 
leaves at the top a yard long from the centre of the 
columnar trunks. Let us hope all of them will start 
this summer; Palms being, of all stove plants, the most 
appropriate for this part of the house. The beds and 
vases round the bronze fountain at this end were filled 
