ON THE ARRANGEMENT OF ORNAMENTAL PLANTS. 179 
these blended together, by which means nature would be followed; 
and the more lofty trees, entwined by their climbers, interspersed 
and shaded off to the glades and other openings, by shrubs and 
the herbaceous and ground plants : the whole mass, gay in its 
variety of flowers, would be exceedingly beautiful. Then, during 
the summer, some of the brightly-tinted birds of warmer climes, 
secured, if necessary, in invisible wire cages, would greatly 
heighten the effect. We believe that some, indeed a considerable 
number of the vegetable productions of the Tierra Frio of Brazil, 
would stand the English winter ; and to these, several species of 
maccaw, which are easily taught not to range, would give all the 
gaiety of living flowers. 
This may seem to have no immediate connexion with the 
culture of florist’s flowers, or the advancement of the merely 
floral art ; but it ought to be borne in mind that this art is only a 
single department of the more general art of cultivation for the 
purposes of beauty ; and that it is not possible to improve any 
one branch of a general art, without stimulating, and even 
assisting all the others. 
Let us take a single example in illustration of the general 
principle which we are advocating; and as it can be best done 
there, let us take it in that which may be considered the highest 
department of indoor culture,—the stove. In order to carry out 
the plan, the stove would have to be of more ample extent and 
far greater height than any of those now in use ; and it would not 
be available for those who grow plants for sale, because they 
must bring every longitude of the intertropical zone within the 
walls of the same structure, in order that they may please every 
customer. Such a collection, if ample enough, well selected, and 
treated with first-rate skill, may be exquisitely beautiful in its 
individual plants, and not only striking, but absolutely startling 
from its contrasts ; but notwithstanding this, which we freely 
admit is the very best plan for the mercantile breeder, there is no 
keeping and congruity in the very best of such houses, taken as 
a whole, ihe beauty, even when it is the most exquisite in the 
individual plants—say in the choicest Orchidacece in full bloom, 
is still only prettiness, because one cannot so generalize it, as to 
bring it up to that point which inspires the most delightful in¬ 
tellectual feeling of beauty. 
If however each orchidaceous plant were on its native living 
