But it should be like the bold swell of a general curve, composed, it may be, of several parts, but the outer of these gradually carrying down the line to the lower and humbler forms. Or, if the more spiry plants now and then find a place, as they may do most usefully, to give greater change and strength of character, they should not rise very much above the rest, and should appear to belong to a group of the more spreading and clustering kinds, like the spire of a church peering out from amid a grove of ancient Elms.

On estates where there is sufficient variation of surface and extent of property to admit of the introduction of such a feature, a most happy effect may sometimes be produced by partially planting the summit and slope of an adjacent hill, (fig. 114,) so

as to convey the idea of large woods, of which the parts seen are but the straggling arms or off-shoots, lying behind and on the other face of the hill. And if treated with proper boldness and regard to diversity, such masses of wood, with their outlying specimen trees or bushes, will greatly enrich the hill, and relieve it from any tendency to undue roundness or tameness of outline. An excellent model for this treatment may often be seen in the delightfully picturesque and ragged patches of common Furze with which Nature sometimes clothes the faces of hills of a similar character; such masses nearly always presenting a remarkable freshness, freedom, and beauty of outline.

8. In respect to the disposal of flowers in gardens, if we include in that term all the simply herbaceous kinds that are not shrubby, or, at any rate, merely such additional low shrubs as are grown out of doors only in the summer, a considerable reformation in the prevailing practice seems demanded. Go where we will, into old or new places, it is seldom indeed that the beds or masses of shrubs on a lawn are not entirely surrounded with a strip of ground appropriated exclusively to the herbaceous tribes. The edges of groups are thus most defectively and tamely finished off; they have an exceedingly blank appearance in winter; the size of the lawn is materially diminished; and such borders can never, without a great deal of trouble, be very neatly kept. To compensate for all this, they impart a little additional gaiety during summer, which might, however, be readily attained in other ways.

The desirable plan would be, to dismiss all common herbaceous plants from the fronts of groups on the lawn, and to supply their place with small circular beds, or masses of other shapes, filled with flowers of one sort or one tribe, or with a mixture of different kinds, according to the size of the beds. In other parts, again, single specimens might be put, or two or three plants placed together so as to look like a good clustering specimen, of taller or dwarfer varieties that are worthy of being thus detached. And by these means, a sufficient amount of liveliness may be produced on a lawn, while the beds and single plants can be so arranged, in conformity with the suggestions before given for grouping and connecting objects on lawns, that, though they will last only during summer, they will then seem but a more elaborate carrying out of a consistent plan, while in winter, the garden will be complete without them, and they can, if very staring and conspicuous, on account of their emptiness, be readily turfed over till the summer returns. At any rate, a portion of them may be thus treated.

That flowers in small beds or masses, with occasional single specimens of them, (such as Dahlias, Fuchsias, two or three scarlet Pelargoniums planted so as to look like one, Petunias,

supported by a low fancy frame of wire, and many other things,) produce a finer and more artistic effect on a lawn, with the groups of shrubs reposing entirely on the grass, than by the old method of growing them in borders, any one who has seen the plan well adopted will, it is thought, immediately admit. Greater breadth and more variety are thus produced. And each tribe gets its appropriate treatment, without interference from the other; while all are exhibited to the highest advantage.

9. Not to banish the large class of herbaceous plants and bulbs which could not be thus brought together in beds, and many of which, more especially the spring-flowering species, are extremely interesting; I would grow them in the places usually assigned to them round all the masses of shrubs for the first three or four years after these were planted, and until they became fit to be surrounded wholly with turf, when the lower tribes might be consigned altogether to those back borders, which faced the side walks and were not seen from the lawn, or to such other parts of the pleasure grounds as did not come into view from the house, and of which the shrubbery walk will be an illustration.

It must be remembered, then, that shrubs which are but just planted and insufficiently established, will not bear turfing around for several years, without injury. They require air to their roots to start them freely. And any neglect of this circumstance, by turfing around them prematurely, will be productive of the very worst consequences, and has been known to retard (almost to stop) their growth for many years, or even to go very far towards destroying them altogether. But they need not have a broad border for this purpose, and anything beyond four or five feet will be both superfluous and ugly.

By keeping the commoner herbaceous plants in such private parts as have been named, they may be cultivated just as fitly as if they were in the more exposed places where they are now usually grown. And they can thus be allowed a breadth of border which will give them a much finer opportunity of developing themselves; only taking care that specimen shrubs

are brought forward singly, or in groups here and there, along the border, to do away with all monotony, and produce a little more freshness and life.

10. Where a place is so small that there cannot be many single plants grown upon the lawn, to exhibit their full beauty and proportions, it will be a judicious plan to treat a number of the plants in the beds or groups mainly as specimens, that they may show themselves better, and that the natural desire for individualising objects of attention, and watching and tending them during their progress, may be duly gratified. Besides which, by thus making each plant a more or less perfect one, a way will be prepared for subsequently covering more of the soil in the bed with turf, and so increasing the size of the lawn, or ultimately turfing over the whole and leaving the best plants to stand on the grass.

The method of rendering individual plants shapely and fit to stand by themselves is very simple. It is not by planting so thinly in the first instance; for, however that plan might succeed in some soils and climates, it will more generally be found serviceable to plant rather thickly, in order to afford encouragement and shelter. It is by early and annual attention to thinning, and by preventing any one plant from intruding on another, whether as to light, air, or nourishment from the soil, that the best specimens can be reared. And though it may be prudent to put in at first such kinds of plants at such distances as will finally be required for fixtures, and fill in, between them, with commoner sorts for a temporary purpose, it will be wise, in thinning, to choose rather those things which have made a good healthy growth, and are not really inappropriate, than mere sickly objects which may have been intended to remain, and have not individually made progress enough, or do not exhibit sufficient promise, to justify their retention.

Sometimes, when persons have thoroughly imbued themselves with the notion that specimens are the chief thing to be desired in a small place, they gradually acquire the impression that nothing else is proper to be encouraged, and that everything

should be made into a specimen. This opinion, however, if fully acted upon, would lead to as much sameness and dulness, as if nothing but dense and variegated masses of plants were cultivated. The most beautiful combinations and the most exquisite variety will result from letting a few plants of different heights and characters grow together in some parts, as they do in a state of nature; where bushes and trees often mingle their forms, and are linked into closer union by the tangling Clematis, or lusty briar, or more luxuriant bramble.

11. Towards the boundaries of a place, the plants in a border, especially if it be narrow, will have to be treated still more generally, and with a less regard to their individual appearance. Here the aim must be to obtain a good under-growth if there be trees, or to permit the formation of thickets where there are only shrubs. There may likewise be parts of an inner plantation, or group, where peculiar denseness is wanted to cover some defect, or to make the walk more perfectly private; and in these the same characteristics should be cherished.

Thickets, besides being useful as screens to various objects, will, when only occasional deviations from the system of making each plant a specimen, be interesting both for their variety and beauty. They will form a great change from the more open method of culture, and exhibit much beauty of connexion and contrast. There will be a luxuriance, and a freeness, and an indefiniteness about them which will not fail to please. It is not to be assumed, however, that such masses are intended to be as thick as the plants will stand on the ground, or to be left to a pure state of nature. In that case the stronger would soon overpower the weaker, and the better sorts would die out, leaving serious gaps where they had grown; and a wildness and want of cultivation, foreign to the character of a garden, would speedily ensue. The term thicket is used here to define a plantation in which shrubs prevail, and where they are but sparingly kept thinned out, and are allowed to grow into each other pretty freely, so long as they are not likely to destroy one