weak underling branches; and this is called natural pruning: but the skilful pruner assists nature; he does not wait till the branches are dead, any more than the skilful vine-grower waits till the berries are dead before he thins the bunches of grapes, &c. If fine clear timber is as desirable as fine flowers and fruits are, then pruning and thinning are necessary operations. It is natural that a tree should have leaves; and it is natural that a sheep should have wool: the former protects its parent from the scorching summer sun, and the latter from the winter storms; they both assist in carrying off superabundant sap, and yet may you deprive the sheep of its fleece in the middle of winter, or a tree of all its leaves in the middle of summer, if artificial means are used to protect the sheep from catching cold, and the tree from being blistered by the sun.

I have said that the branches are merely the offspring of the tree, and I add that they draw up sap only to enrich themselves. This can be proved by looking at an apple tree grafted upon a crab, or the weeping ash grafted on the common ash they are complete bloodsuckers. I have seen

a weeping ash, not quite so large as an Egyptian pyramid, but getting on that way like; while its foster-mother was not fit for a ladder-pole: and I have seen a common ash, planted at the same time, with a top that barely makes room for three rooks' nests, yet with a trunk fit for sawing into eleven-inch planks. When a less succulent graft is introduced into a more succulent stock, the case is reversed, the stock overgrows the graft, and kills it in a few years; on the same principle that trees kill their own offspring, in the way called natural pruning: witness the cytisus budded on the laburnum, and a thousand other examples.

I believe this system of physiology will be new to most of your readers; but it is the true system for all that. It is a reform in the old system; and, like the brave Earl Grey, "I will either stand or fall by the bill." I shall not, however, go the length of some, to cry "the whole bill, and nothing but the bill:" it must be mended in a committee of practical men, who know at what time to shear a sheep, and when to prune a tree; and not by "ignorant and self-sufficient baronets," who read books, and write books, and yet do not know how to prune a currant bush. Malheur à vous, conducteurs aveugles! My sheet is filled up, and, of course, my article, as you call it, is long enough; but I shall come to the scratch again, if I receive another call, and now remain, Yours, in good troth,

Heath House, April, 1832.

VOL. VIII. No. 40.

JOHN HOWDen.

ART. XIV. Remarks on laying out and managing Flower-Gardens. By Mr. ROBERT Errington.

Sir,

I FEEL pleasure in complying with your request as to sending you some remarks on flower-gardens, and shall be glad if there should be any thing in the following observations worthy a place in your useful work. I am, however, afraid that I am not competent to do justice to the subject; and thinking it very probable that I may fall into errors in the course of what I am about to write, I can only say, that I shall feel much obliged to any of your readers who will kindly point them out.

As to situation, distance from the mansion, &c., I can say little; these matters being, of course, regulated, in a considerable degree, by the direction of the principal walk, and some other affairs, frequently of a merely local character. I would, however, if possible, place the flower-garden a little on one side of the principal walk, not far from the mansion, and yet have it so contrived as to be almost entirely concealed from both mansion and walk; for partial concealment (it will be admitted, I think) gives a zest to beauties of this kind. In such a situation, I would have it so managed as to present to the eye from the main walk, externally, a series of boldly irregular masses, having considerable breadth, and united in some degree to the scenery around by a few single trees, bushes, or smaller groups, which require, as you well observe, considerable taste in their disposal, and are frequently carried to an unpleasant extreme. They are, however, indispensable in some situations, according to Price, and other authors of acknowledged repute, as doing away with extreme distinctness, and blending the scenery.

A walk, of somewhat less width than the principal one, should embrace the parterre; and this walk, as before observed, should be well screened with handsome plantations. The masses on the outside, especially if next the park, I would plant chiefly with timber trees, having a base or undergrowth of holly, thorn, laurel, privet, &c., to be eventually insulated, or grouped on grass here and there, as taste might suggest, and forming a gradual transition to the park scenery.

The masses on the other side, or margin, of the parterre, I would have composed, for the most part, of American plants, roses, and choice flowering shrubs; and interspersed, here and there, with ornamental trees of middle height, tree roses, &c. and here, I think, might find a place such of the herbaceous tribes as are found too high for the beds; such as

tall phloxes, asters, georginas, hollyhocks, &c., not as principals, but thinly to tower, at intervals, over the shrubs. The masses may have an undergrowth of Portugal laurel, yew, rhododendron, and other sombre-tinted evergreens, to heighten the contrast, and render the parterre somewhat striking, as well as gay. These masses should not, I think, be formed in a continuous line, but be broken at intervals, on the park side to give glimpses occasionally of picturesque views, and on the parterre side to exhibit a tempting peep or two from different positions; which breaks may serve as points of ingress and egress, and, as it were, steal in among the trees. The margin of grass between the parterre and the main walk might be so managed by planting, that the two points of junction between the main walk and the parterre walk should not be seen at the same time from any situation.

As to the interior arrangements, the margin of grass between the parterre and the side masses should, in my opinion, have considerable breadth; say, average from 10 ft. to 15 ft.; and the terminating beds should project rather irregularly on this breadth. The points of the surrounding masses, also, should be made to jut inwards occasionally, to establish a kind of connection with the parterre; allowing sufficient distinctness to the parterre as a whole, and yet doing away, as much as possible, with form for form's sake, and with detached meagreness. It appears to me that, in the style here recommended, much of the gracefulness of a parterre depends on a certain irregular breadth of grass being preserved in disposing the beds. The idea of breadth in The idea of breadth in a parterre may seem ridiculous; but when the ground appropriated to this purpose is frittered away in projecting angles, with tree roses and other plants on the grass filling up every situation where an opportunity offers, though forms may be accurate, and the ground may be well furnished, there will be little gracefulness.

For beds on gravel, I must confess, I have but very little inclination; and as to those on grass, I may here remark that the general effect does not so much depend on the precise figure of each individual bed, as on the outline and character given to the grass in the disposition of those beds. A great deal of the insipidity which is so often the subject of complaint in flower-gardens arises, I have no doubt, from that lumpishness and want of figure which the surface of the plants presents. And here I may observe, that I concur in the remarks to that effect made some time ago by Mr. Spence (Vol. VI. p. 408.), and am convinced that considerable attention must be paid to figure as well as colour. I may also add that the observations here made have reference chiefly to changeable

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flower-gardens; and that a regular plan should be adopted, which would guarantee to the possessor a continual and complete succession of flowers, both in the mingled beds and in the masses, all through the season. But this, of course, cannot be effected, in the manner here represented, by a gardener who has forcing, kitchen-gardening, and shrubberies to look after, but must form a province by itself; and the man who will undertake to do justice to a flower-garden, and make it what it ought to be, will find his head and hands fully employed all the year round. Something might be here said about the division of labour in our profession; but, as old Richard says, "Folks don't preach sermons at a fair.'

In the kind of garden here described, a person of good taste (except the merely scientific man) would not stop to enquire whether the number of species consisted of fifty or five hundred, provided he met with well-balanced and har

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monious colours, and a beautifully playful variety of figure: to effect this, it appears to me that though, as to figure, each bed should be complete in itself; yet, both as to figure and to colour, each should bear a proper relation and subserviency to the whole. Botanical arrangements, rosaries, &c., I admire as much as any one, in their place; that is, provided we are not compelled to look upon them, and pass through them, at all times of the year: but when masses of flowers of fleeting character are made to form outlines and principal features in the scenery, I think a gaudy mass for a few weeks a sorry compensation for lumpish forms and months of barrenness.

It will be seen that the garden here described is fitted to a seat of considerable pretensions. The parterre style is, however, applicable to a place of almost any size, and, perhaps, to any circumstances, except where a connection with the buildings would impose a peculiar character on the parterre.

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