THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— October 21, 1850. 
4-3 
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told, because eight feet of the diameter of this sixteen- 
foet circle are implanted, that therefore fifty plants will 
do what it would have required a hundred to do. Now, 
it would require seventy-five instead of fifty to plant the 
outer riug, and therefore there would merely ho a saving 
of one quarter instead of one half, for though the dia¬ 
meter of a sixteen feet circle is only double that of one 
of eight feet, its circumference and its area are four 
times as large. 
2. There is no economy, hut an increase in labour, and 
that of a fid-faddling character. How is the ring of 
grass inside the flowers got at and kept so nice ? Does 
a stalwart six-footer stride over the four-feet ring, or a 
dwarfer man wade and waddle through it as he can with 
all the paraphernalia of scythe, clippers, broom, and 
basket? or are two strong trestles sot at two opposite 
points of the circumference, and a strong plank laid across 
so high as to clear the Geraniums, and enable the 
operator to drop quietly into the magic circle at once,and 
when there clod dod away with a small scythe, or magnani¬ 
mously get on his knees, and clip the whole circle round 
the pedestal as if he were a hairdresser? I care not 
much how, but 1 know all this involves no economy in 
labour. [ have seen many instances of pedestals form¬ 
ing the centre of flower-beds; and with a vase of flowers 
on the top of them, or with a statue peculiarly appro¬ 
priate to Flora, there was not so much amiss in this 
arrangement when the plants went up close to the 
pedestal, and there was no open circle The saving ol 
some twelve plants out of the hundrod seldom entered 
into calculation in such circumstances. Thus managed, 
I should have no objection to our friend having a bed 
round a flag-staff properly situated, as the staff might 
support a large central plant or a strong and rampant 
climber, that would lend a graceful relief to the dwarfer 
flowers below. Such vases, even though somewhat ap¬ 
propriate, and standing on elevated pedestals, when 
placed often in the centre of flower-beds, just tell every 
visitor that the owners did not know what to do with 
them. 
3. There is an evident make-believism in the whole 
affair, that,like everything approaching sham, brings dis¬ 
appointment with it when found out. We are told, and 
truly, that these ling-beds of Geraniums look from a 
distance as if the whole diameter of sixteen feet were 
planted ; but when looked at from a higher level, or 
when close at them, we see we have been deceived, as a 
flat open centre, instead of an elevated rounded one, 
presents itself. The beauty of a circle bed of flowers 
consists not so much in its circular circumferential out¬ 
line as in the somewhat semicircular outline across its 
diameter. A correspondent the other day, who proposed 
sinking all his beds beneath the turf considerably, that 
they might be less seen at a distance, asks the reasons 
why ever they should be seen above it. Well, the above 
is ouo reason in the case of a circle. There is a senti¬ 
mentality getting rife about concealing this and showing 
off that iu our gardens. If a thing is fit and appro¬ 
priate for a desirable, useful purpose, why attempt to 
conceal it? if not, why have it at all? These petty 
deceptions and make-believes in gardening, if they should 
become fashionable, will be more extensively injurious 
than is generally believed. 
And lastly, for the present, thero is the clashing ol dis¬ 
tinct forms of beauty, that deprives us of the satisfaction 
of contemplating them separately, and, therefore, jum¬ 
bles all. A bod of flowers is beautiful in itself. If you 
will have riugs of them, and serpentine twists round 
green grass, do so by all means. The object is apparent, 
and will be duly appreciated. The column—the pedestal 
with its statue, or urn, or vase, &o.—is likewise beautilul 
in itself; but whilst the bod has something of the natural 
in its beauty, the othor is purely artistic, and the beauty 
of ihe one, though it ever lends a charm to the beauty 
of the other when contiguous but distinct, will rarely 
blend into an agreeable whole. Much of the interest, 
and, consequently, the beauty of a column or pedestal 
consists in its having a clear space around it, so that it 
may bo seen down to its basement line, and its security 
and safety thence be inferred. These ideas are ail dis¬ 
sipated when we look upon such a column as if it had 
been plumped down in the centre of a dug piece ofground, 
even though we know that the one is as secure as the 
other. So far as I recollect, these pedestals rise perpen¬ 
dicularly out of the grass; but the ideas of security and 
massiveness would have been enhanced if they had 
stood upon a stone plinth, or even a brick one painted 
aud sanded, two or three inches wider than themselves, 
just upon the same principle that stepping up into a 
house adds to its dignity and importance. On the other 
side of the walk the pedestals will be seen free, but with 
the beds, as 1 recollect, rather near them. Those in¬ 
terested will now judge for themselves. I do not hope 
to stay the fashionabilily; but, while others call it charm¬ 
ing and beautiful, with my present lights I look upon 
this ring-bed system round statues, &c., as an excrescence 
in ornamental flower-gardening. 
I had intended noticing the Scarlet Geraniums all 
over the grounds; the lateness of the dwarf purple 
Dahlia. Zelinda, and also the Crystal Palace Scarlet 
(though how it came to have that name, being an old 
Dahlia, I may iu future inquire, as 1 have had beds of 
both in full massive bloom since July); the double 
rings of flowers round other large masses of common 
Dahlias that had been laid; the mode of planting the 
single clumps in the sunk panels at the Rosary; the 
beauty of the ribbon chain on the bank of the Rosary, 
that only wanted a wider row in front to make it com¬ 
plete, and from which I saw the importance of having 
broad bauds of colour in ribbon-gardening, even though 
two or three rows should be used of one tiling instead of 
one row; the Vandykes of scarlet aud yellow at the wings ; 
and the thorough trim and ueatness everywhere preva¬ 
lent- But 1 have far exceeded my bounds, and have no 
excuse to offer but the great influence the Palace and 
the doings thero are exercising on the ornamental part 
of gardening. 
If I have honestly pointed out anything which it 
would be as well for gardeners not to imitate, even if 1 
should be found to be right in my deductions, these 
little matters, contrasted with the grandeur displayed, 
are but as a small mote in a bright sunbeam. The splen¬ 
dour is so great that we shriuk from small details, though 
these, after all, constitute the greatness of the one whole. 
A deep sense of respect is felt among gardeners for the 
man who originated such a grand idea, aud who, in 
working out such honour for himself, also indirectly 
honoured the class to which he belonged. More than 
once during the day I heard the question mooted, Could 
gardeners do nothing in the way of testimonial or monu¬ 
ment? We fear that testimonials iu this case would be 
out of jflace, though the feelings that prompt such ques¬ 
tions are honourable and manly. Gigantic statues of 
the groat gardener and his great fellow-labourers in the 
great work, if placed on the top of the centre and two 
wing transepts, would break the somewhat monotonous 
sky outline of the building. But, after all, what need of 
statue or monument, when, as in the case of the archi¬ 
tect of St. Paul’s, the visitor at the Crystal Palace has 
only “ to look around him?” R. Fish. 
