144 THE FLORIST. 
Devoniensis, Eliza Sauvage, and Souvenir d’un Ami; these were on 
their own roots. The following were on short Briars :—-Comte de Paris, 
Sombreuil, M. Maurin, and M. Bravy; they are all transcendent 
Roses. The last is not far from the best white autumnal; she is said 
not to bloom out of doors; she bloomed well five Roses in her first 
series, 23 in her second series, and was covered with buds in September, 
when the adverse weather set in. I could not, you see, finish without a 
word about Roses, for— 
‘“‘ It lightens and brightens 
The tenebrific scene, 
To meet with and greet with 
This most delightful theme.” 
March 26. W. F. RADCLYFFE. 
EVERGREENS IN FLOWER GARDENS. 
IF the present fashion of planting flower gardens is persisted in much 
longer, all our grand British gardens will be so much alike that it will 
be a mere toss up which is the best worth seeing. As it is, we judge 
gardens now by a very different standard from what existed 20 years 
back. The rarest exotic trees and shrubs, the richest collection of plants, 
or the highest degree of cultivation, go now almost for nothing with our 
modern ideas; and the comparative standard of excellence is really 
this :—How many thousand pots of bedding plants do they turn out, as 
if the entire beauty and interest of a place depended on so many hundred 
feet more or less of ribbon border, or on two or three thousand Geraniums 
or Verbenas systematically pitted against each other. This mode of 
comparing places with each other reminds one of the announcement very 
seriously made by guides to cathedrals and large show-houses to their 
visitors, that the buildings contain exactly so many doors and windows, 
a point of so much importance in their estimation that the grandeur 
and associations of the edifice are insignificant in comparison. Now, 
with all deference to the admirers of modern flower gardening, who are 
so much in love with strong colouring, we must express an opinion that 
there is a wide field for improvement in this particular line of garden 
decoration ; and that this taste for multiplying masses of colours at the 
expense of every other feature of landscape gardening is neither based 
on sound principles, nor yet justified by any authority of recognised 
talent. The question is an important one, and we moot it by way of 
discussion, being fully persuaded ourselves that a more general intro- 
duction of certain classes of evergreens as elements in the composition 
of geometrical gardens, not only as giving effect to the general design, 
but as neutralising glaring colours, and we may add of giving a higher 
finish and a more permanent character to this style of gardens 
than they at present possess, would be much preferable, more par- 
ticularly when not filled with plants. It may be considered by 
some of our readers that we are carrying our ideas quite as far 
in one direction as the taste we are criticising goes in the other, 
that, in fact, we are retrogading and going back to the times of 
