AUGUST, 
As a rule, will show us plainly the several classes of 
gardeners in their proper light. Those who have gar¬ 
dens for the pleasures they afford, not only to them¬ 
selves, but to all who care to enjoy them ; those who 
think they must have gardens, simply because they 
have grounds ; and others who have gardens because 
they are fashionable—a necessity, as an external evi¬ 
dence of wealth—on the same principle as they buy hand¬ 
somely-bound books which,they never read ; but in our 
gardening observations there are two classes that are 
rarely met: the man of moderate means who cultivates 
flowers, but does not love them, and the man of wealth, 
who lias flower’s and does love them. 
By this time every ill that horticulture is heir to 
will be known and felt, and those who truly love their 
flowers have watched over them with a mother’s care, 
feeding them when hungry, nursing them when sick, 
fighting insect enemies at all times, and finally coming 
out victorious. Now they are enjoying the fruits 
(flowers) of their labors. Their gardens are full and 
running over with clean, healthy and prolific plants, 
arranged with taste, skillfully cared for, the pride of 
the household, and the envy of those who “ love flowers 
dearly, but do not like the care of them.” We have 
our opinion of that kind of love, it is like the mother’s 
love for her child, when she turns it over to the cruel 
kindness of the nurse, because she does not like the 
care of it. 
Many a garden that promised well in May, is now in 
the sear and yellow leaf. The spring fever came on 
early, and the garden was laid out in regulation style ; 
the gardener filled it with plants that had never before 
felt the dew; the first night gave them a congestive 
chill, and the plants have been growing smaller ever 
since they were planted, and now they are in nature’s 
weeds, mourning because they were not loved. The 
gardens, wherein a gardener is kept, are now looking 
mechanically beautiful, the long “ribbons” are as 
smooth and evenly cut as a piece of velvet carpet, with 
colors in Grecian pattern as regularly arranged. We 
have the poorest opinion possible of any man’s skill 
when he attempts to make a tree or plant grow in any 
form more beautiful than its Creator gave it. True 
artistic effect in gardening is never produced by maim¬ 
ing and mutilating the objects in it. If ribbons or set 
figures are desired, and they can be had by any arrange¬ 
ment that will allow each individual plant to grow in 
its integrity, we have not the slightest objection, and 
would admire the arrangement. But the first thing to 
be observed in the garden, is to have plants perfectly 
developed, and then arranged in such a manner as will 
produce the most pleasing effects. We do not by any 
means wish to underrate,the importance of the profes¬ 
sional gardener ; he puts art into hisdabor that it may 
be more valuable. It is the taste for that particular 
kind of art that we do not admire. Besides, it requires 
far more natural taste in design to so arrange plants, 
that each may be seen entire—a perfect specimen—and, 
at the same time, the whole so ordered as to make a 
perfect picture. That is the pattern of art that we 
would like to see encouraged; the highest and most 
perfect development of the plant, grown because it fills 
a place in its owner’s affection. 
If the owner of a garden really cares for it, if he has 
a soul in the work, we care very little for plans and 
arrangements. If he is prompted by a desire that 
springs from ideality, his garden will be beautiful; if' 
his garden is made to meet a fashionable necessity, it 
can afford but little pleasure. The true pleasures of a 
garden have a deep, a firm foundation; they exert a 
wonderful influence for good, and aid materially in the 
formation of character, and are indispensable items in 
the daily home-comfort of the family. 
The love of a garden is of the deepest, purest and 
most unselfish character; it does not weary with age; 
on the contrary it increases with our years, while the 
love for other pursuits weakens and decays. The in¬ 
fluence that flowers have on character is fitly spoken by 
“ H. R.” in the Villa Gardner. He says: “ Sir William 
Temple, who, when he anticipated the time had nigh 
come for him to leave his garden and that home to 
which he was so bound—even though anticipating that 
he would be interred in the all-coveted Westminster 
Abbey—gave orders for his heart to be enclosed in a 
casket of silver, and to be there placed under a sun¬ 
dial in that part of his garden immediately opposite the 
window of his library, from whence he was accustomed 
to behold and contemplate the wonders and the beau¬ 
ties of his beautifully-kept garden. 
‘ ‘ There, where the sun shone brightest, registering its 
daily course; where busy insect life, renewed each 
spring, should flaunt round and rest; and where the 
pure, sweet flowers of earth continue to bloom and 
dispel their wonted fragrance, must his heart find its 
resting-place. 
“Apart from all poetry, what a fund of love for gar¬ 
den associations must have been possessed by Sir Wil¬ 
liam to have induced him to make such a wish. Then, 
again, we find Rousseau buried in the Island of Poplars 
—a fitting tribute of his worth, carried out by his friend 
Garardin; Plato rests in the fragrant groves of Acade- 
mus; and the wife of Wieland—Christopher Wieland, 
who in his seventh year read Cornelius Nepos with 
facility, and at the age of eleven assayed his powers of 
Latin poetry—rests in his old garden at Osmannstadt. 
“ It is not necessary for us to again quote Lord Bacon 
to prove the worthiness of our theme, or to revert to 
Eden's precepts. Flowers comprised the artistic deco¬ 
rations of the Temple and of the buildings of Solomon. 
They, as the flowers of the field, are used to illustrate 
many very beautiful parables of Scripture. Greek and 
Jew have utilized them to represent all that is beauti¬ 
ful and good in life; and the people of Eastern coun¬ 
tries talk in then - mystic language, an aestheticism pro¬ 
verbially beneficial in connection with domestic 
felicity, to say no more. 
“ Not only may we cultivate our own delights and en¬ 
joyments herein, but it were well to aid their dissem¬ 
ination on all sides. Horticultural societies prove of 
great assistance in these regards. The gift of plants is 
