resist the abrasion it would constantly be receiving from the feet of those who passed up and down it, and in other ways.

To put a lawn into anything like a natural shape, the contour of the adjoining land must be strictly noticed. Cases have frequently occurred in my practice where nothing but a gentle convex line, so slightly rounded as almost to be imperceptible, would at all fit on to the lines of the park or field outside. And it will be of material consequence to arrange this nicely.

Ordinarily, however, the more or less prolonged ogee line will be the most appropriate and most graceful of natural lines, and this kind of surface should then be preserved, in a very softened form throughout the entire formation, joining on the lawn to the raised clumps or specimen plants with a similarly easy and flowing double curve. So much has previously been said about the beauty of this line, and its adoption has been so repeatedly urged and illustrated, that it is not at all necessary here to do more than advert to it generally.

In shaping and forming a piece of garden ground, where much variation from the original surface is desired, the readiest method is to commence at the lower part of the land, take out a trench across it of about four feet in breadth, and either lower or fill up the ground as the trenching proceeds. This will be a far more simple and economical plan than stripping off all the soil and putting it aside, and then working the ground into shape, and restoring the soil to the surface.

5. The period at which ground-work is performed in laying out a garden, is not the least among the practical matters that have to be considered. There is an unhappy propensity to defer this till the very moment in which planting and turfing have to be done; and thus due preparation cannot be made for the one, while the other settles most irregularly, and requires subsequent altering and levelling.

Summer and autumn are essentially the best seasons for all kinds of new ground-work. The earth is then driest, and can be most easily moved about, and will not be injured by trampling or wheeling. Ground put into shape, too, during the summer, gets time to settle and mellow before it is wanted for either planting or sodding; and anything that is afterwards done in the way of finishing will stand better, and demand less alteration. What is not altogether unimportant, likewise, labour can

then be carried on more easily and more abundantly. I should therefore earnestly press those about to form gardens not to put off the operation till winter or spring, but to take advantage of the late summer and early autumn weather to get, at any rate, the principal part of the work done, and the leading outlines of everything prepared. Perhaps the early autumn is better than summer for the purpose, as the ground will then be kept partially softened by rain, and turf and evergreens may be moved, if required, without being killed. The whole of the month of August, and the first fortnight in September, will, in the main, be the best period.

6. In the preparation of ground for planting and for grass, the difference in their requirements will have distinctly to be kept in mind. Plantations can hardly have too much good soil. A thorough provision of suitable and mellow earth will almost neutralise the disadvantages of climate or situation, and keep plants always flourishing and healthy. For lawns, on the other hand, a light, shallower, and poorer soil, if it be properly drained and worked previously to sodding or sowing, will be preferable, as tending to keep down undue luxuriance, and promote the growth of the finer grasses, and check the development of rank weeds.

Ground that is in any degree heavy, or that has been newly drained, ought to be trenched all over, whether for grass or plants. If the sub-soil be clay, it can be turned up loosely in the bottom; but if of a lighter material, it should be brought to the surface for plantations, and simply turned over in the bottom of the trenches for grass. It will always be undesirable to bring clay to the surface in pleasure gardens; though, in kitchen gardens, where it can be freely worked and mellowed for several years, the common mode of inverting the positions. of the surface soil and the sub-soil may be adopted. reason for working a lighter sub-soil to the top in plantations, and not for grass, is that additions of better earth can be made to the former, when the sub-soil will be blended with this in planting, while it is rather intended to take away several inches of the top-soil from the grass land and transfer it to the plantations. Two, three, or four inches of the best earth, according to its natural depth, may thus be abstracted from the parts intended for lawn, and will go to raise and enrich the

The

plantations without injuriously affecting the grass. From nine to twelve inches in depth of the commonest soil will be amply sufficient for growing lawn grasses to perfection.

All the soil from the foundations of roads or walks should further be applied to the ground intended for plantations. Even where the walks have to be raised rather than lowered, it will be better still to remove the soil and replace it with rubbish. The earth obtained from the foundations of the house or other buildings, should also be carefully kept apart from the sub-soil, and used for the plantations. And it will be a prudent and safe rule to assume that no amount of good earth that is at all obtainable from any of the sources pointed out, will be otherwise than beneficial for shrubs and trees, or for fruit trees and general crops in the kitchen garden.

If the soil of a garden be moderately light, and a good mass of it, by the means here suggested, be procured for the shrubs and trees, and for the flower beds; manures, beyond such things as lime, soot, wood ashes, decayed leaves or wood, or any similar matters, will be quite needless for the ornamental part. Roses, however, demand a richer soil, and are much improved by the aid of some well-rotted manure, which should not be grudgingly administered.

But where the earth is stiff and clayey, and not enough of lighter soil is within reach to correct its retentiveness and incapacity for growing plants, manures will then not only be beneficial but necessary. Common stable manure can be largely applied with advantage in such cases; while lime, bone dust, coal ashes, or the manure from the ash-pits of towns, or the sweepings of streets, will be invaluable. And these may be used, though with a more niggardly hand, for the parts to be formed into lawn, as well as for the plantations.

When the opportunities and patience of the proprietor allow it, a garden will be greatly improved, both for plants and grass, if it can be trenched up in the autumn, a year before it is wanted for finishing, and left unoccupied for the season, simply keeping down the weeds. Or it may be planted with potatoes, or sown with turnips or mangold wurzel, or otherwise cropped and kept clean. All kinds of crudities in it would thus be destroyed, and the texture be immensely ameliorated. Considering that there will be such a slender chance of its being broken up again

and worked, otherwise than very partially, after the lawn is made, and the trees and shrubs planted, a year's preparation of this sort is only a matter of the most ordinary policy, and should not, on any but the most imperative accounts, be lost.

There is one tribe, of which the Rhododendron is the representative, composed chiefly of such as are denominated "American plants," that wants a little peculiar attention as to soil. They will, it is true, live in any ordinary garden soil, especially if it be light. But they attain their richest state when the earth in which they are grown is in great part made up of fibrous peat. To have them in their highest perfection, then, they should be grown principally in masses, so that proper soil can be supplied to them; and should be furnished with about one-third or one-half of good peat or leaf-mould, in a rather shady situation.

Where proper peat cannot be procured for Rhododendrons, leaf-mould will be the best substitute for it. And if even this should not be attainable, turfy loam, taken from an old pasture, may suffice; or well-rotted stable manure may be freely used in conjunction with common soil. Any earth that is naturally of a chalky kind, or that contains much lime, will be particularly unfavourable to Rhododendrons.

7. One of the greatest practical difficulties with which the artist in landscape has to contend, is dealing with the picturesque. Smoothness and regularity of treatment are so thoroughly what an ordinary gardener is accustomed to, that it requires no small effort to enlighten him as to the mode of achieving anything really beautiful in the way of curved lines and undulations. But when ruggedness and an appearance of rude naturalness are sought, it is indeed hard to obtain a practical operator. In this case, soil has often to be thrown down in rough heaps, without smoothing, or levelling, or exhibiting the marks of any tool; masses of soil or rock have to be wrenched away from the face of a bank; stones or roots have to be thrown down as irregularly and wildly as possible; tufts of rugged vegetation, or scrambling shrubs, must be left, where these exist; all roundness or curvatures have to be avoided; and everything that is angular and broken striven after. Rocks, when they are inserted, require to be blended with the ground in the neighbourhood by means of a few scattered groups or single stones;

only partially filling up the interstices among them with soil, so as to preserve a rugged surface, and not providing for covering the stones too much.

8. Planting may be undertaken with reference solely to the ultimate effects it will produce, or it can be made to embrace a more immediate and present result. The former plan is, of course, somewhat the easiest, as far as labour is concerned, and is the least expensive when the plants have to be bought. But a garden that is planted only with the smallest nursery things will be exceedingly tame and uninteresting for several years; and it will require the planter to have a very good knowledge of each individual variety of object, with respect to its natural or usual height and habit, to make the final picture at all a successful one.

In many neighbourhoods where large areas have been planted for public or prospective ends, the yearly thinnings from such plantations will be obtainable on comparatively moderate terms, and these will be very useful in giving an appearance of age and variety to a garden. As private gardens, too, are generally in need of thinning, a planter may sometimes pick up a number of effective specimens among his friends, or in the way of exchange for other things. And when these resources fail, or money is not so much considered, most good nurserymen now grow plants in borders, and transplant them occasionally, for the express purpose of supplying larger specimens, that are well rooted, and can be safely removed with balls of earth, to diversify, and give an air of greater finish to newly formed gardens. A few dozens of these, which can be had at the rate of from one to five shillings each, as they may be very large or rare, or the contrary, will help very materially to soften away the displeasing rawness of a new place, and give it a much more finished look.

Where older shrubs or trees exist in parts of a place that has to be reorganised, these, or some of a similar character, should be scattered through the newly added portions, that there may not be an obvious want of connexion between them. Nothing has a harsher or more disagreeable appearance than a piece of new plantation tacked on to an old one, or fresh masses of young plants placed by the side of older groups, without anything to unite and balance them. Even fifteen or twenty years' growth