very deep, the roots of the trees will strike downwards instead of spreading abroad near the surface, and by that means they will be deprived of their fertility, acquire an extravagant luxuriance of growth, and become cankery. At one foot nine inches to two feet below the surface, such borders should have a thick layer of broken stones or rubbish, or a foundation of concrete, to stop the roots from descending lower. This deposit should also slope towards the front of the border, where it can be connected with a rubble drain, to be in its turn associated with the general drainage. (See fig. 249, which is to a scale of eight feet to an

Fig. 249.

inch.) The entire border will thus be abundantly drained, and the effect of the whole process will be the laying of the border dry and warm, and accessible to air.

A fruit-tree border should likewise be raised several inches or a foot at the back, where it can have a very trifling slope to the width of three feet, and afterwards fall away gradually to the front. It will thus catch the sun's rays still more perfectly, and be more open to the influences of the atmosphere. The roots of the trees will in this way, too, be encouraged to keep near the surface of the border; and the disposition may be increased and perpetuated by having a slight layer of well-rotted manure placed on the border every winter.

No particular compost is needed for the majority of fruit-trees. Good maiden loam, with a tolerably large admixture of welldecayed manure, will be suitable for every kind of them; and grape-vines may have a slight addition of lime or chalk. The

main thing, however, is to have the border dry, and warm, and comparatively shallow.

If choice Pear, or Apple, or Plum, or Cherry trees are grown on an inner border, and are wished to be rendered very productive without occupying much room, it will be worth while to treat these similarly, and raise the border, and have little more than eighteen inches in depth of good soil, with a thick layer of stone or other similar rubbish at the bottom, to check a downward growth, and complete the drainage. It will be much easier to retain trees thus treated in a dwarf and compact state, and they will assuredly bear more freely. Considering the inclination of such trees to become too strong and rambling, the practice will be decidedly remunerative, in the way of both restraint from intruding on other things, and productiveness.

15. Certain situations are so unfavourable to some kinds of vegetation, that they are only capable of bringing a few plants to perfection. And as it is generally better to grow a few things well than to have a more ample collection of indifferently cultivated plants, the knowledge of what will flourish in a given district, will be of great use to guide the planter in his selection. While I cannot pretend, then, to furnish extended lists, which would demand a familiar local acquaintance with the entire country, it may perhaps be suggestive, at least, of what can be done, if I advert to a few common kinds of climatic peculiarities, and mention some of the most ornamental plants that are calculated to suit them.

Gardens in the neighbourhood of the sea, especially along the west coast, from north-west to south-west, are much afflicted with gales, which are of such violence, and carry such a quantity of saline matter with them, that the leaves and young shoots of some plants are frequently destroyed. Dense planting, on ground that has been perfectly drained and prepared, will be some slight preservative against such winds; and it will be useful to gather the plants together in masses, to a greater extent than would otherwise be required, that they may help to sustain and shelter one another. Single plants, or thin strips of them, are always most scourged and cut to pieces by such gales. Still, there are some plants which will endure a prodigious amount of blowing without material damage. And of these the Sycamore, and other Maples, the Abele or white Poplar, the English and

other Elms, (especially the Wych Elm, the Cornish Elm being rather liable to be broken,) Birches, if planted young; Beech, when likewise planted in a small state; the common Alder, the mountain Ash, and several Services; and the Scotch Fir, Austrian Pine, Pinus laricio, montana, and pinaster, if a little sheltered, will make excellent trees for the sea-side. Black Italian Poplars and Willows will be valuable for temporary shelter, as they will grow rapidly and tall, and thus protect the others till they become strong; after which they should, by degrees, be almost entirely weeded out.

Among dwarf sea-side plants, the Dogwoods, the Ribes sanguineum and aureum, Hippophäe rhamnoides, the deciduous Viburnums, the Symphorias, the variegated and other Elders, the Tamarisk, some of the Spiræas, particularly salicifolia, the common Fly Honeysuckle, and the Berberries, are particularly hardy for deciduous shrubs; while all the Hollies are invaluable as evergreens, and the common Rhododendrons, Heaths, Brooms, (when planted young,) evergreen Oaks if once established, evergreen Berberries, double and single-flowered Furze, Phillyrea latifolia, Araucaria imbricata, common and Irish Yew, and Arbutus and Laurustinus if very slightly sheltered, will, with Privet, which is almost evergreen, be useful in rendering a marine villa garden green and lively during winter. Of these, the Tamarisk, the Elder, and the common Furze will flourish on the very margin of the sea, and in the poorest sand-banks.

For hills that are more inland, where there is a scanty soil and great exposure, with steep or precipitous faces, exhibiting little beyond the bare rock in parts, Birches, Pines, Larches, the common Ash, the common Oak, mountain Ash and Services, with Heath, Broom, Gorse, Rhododendrons if there be a little shade, common Hollies, Thorns, Ivy and Clematis for enriching some of the jutting masses of rock, Vacciniums, mountain Snow. berry, Savin, &c., will make an excellent clothing of either a dense or a partial kind. Plants should be put in when quite small in such elevated tracts.

Of plants that will thrive in marshy places, or by the sides of rivers and water courses, Willows and Alders will be the most significant, and the latter are decidedly ornamental. The deciduous Cypress, in sheltered spots, is quite as suitable, and even more elegant. Where there is a small raised bank, however, by the margin of

a stream, Oaks, Beeches, Sycamores, weeping Birches, and Thorns will form good accompaniments, though almost any other tree will grow in such a position.

Within the smoky precincts of large towns, the accumulation of soot on the leaves of plants keeps them sickly, and actually, in conjunction with other influences, destroys many of them. Without doubting the potency of town gases or more substantial deposits, I am inclined to attribute some of the bad health common in town plants to the miserable earth in which they are often grown, and believe that, were the soil renewed and freshened occasionally by additional dressings, the ground being duly drained and prepared in the first instance, many of our Square gardens in towns would present a different aspect.

Some plants, however, unquestionably manage to endure the air of large towns better than others. Elms, Planes, purple Beech, Birches, balsam Poplar, mountain Ash and hybrid Service, Laburnums, Thorns, purple Lilacs, Hollies, Aucuba japonica, Portugal laurel, Arbor-vitæ, Yuccas, Ivy, Privet, Cydonia japonica, the Almond, the Mulberry, and the weeping Cherry, are a few of these. Planes may be particularly mentioned as enduring the very worst of town atmospheres in the heart of London, and growing as healthily there as if they were in the open country. And the beauty of the Chrysanthemums, as cultivated in the Temple gardens, London, must have impressed every one who has seen them, in the month of October, with a strong opinion of their value as town plants. To enumerate more would demand an amount of space which the design of the book will not justify me in affording. Any one accustomed to walk through extensive towns might soon, by a little observation, dilate and perfect the list, and with an eye also to their own locality. The principal aim in this and all other matters has chiefly been to put amateurs on the right track, and not to exhaust the subject, which is too ample to be fully discussed in so short an essay.

16. It may be well just to indicate, cursorily, the order in which the different operations involved in laying out a garden should be performed, as some inconvenience and extra work might be occasioned by having any of them done much out of the proper routine.

The first thing to be set about-whether the place be large

or small-is to make a definite plan of what is to be done, on a sufficiently enlarged scale. This should never be omitted; since the proportions of the various parts can be judged of better on a plain surface, such as that of paper, and greater consistency and harmony can be attained. It will be advisable, also, to set out the walks, plantations, beds, &c., from this plan, by actual measurement, and not simply by the eye, to secure precisely the same easiness of lines, and adjustment of parts, as in the plan; only modifying any of these afterwards in such ways as an examination of the whole, from the many different points of view, may render necessary.

When the plan is made, and the position for the house fixed upon, the soil on the spot which the house will cover, and for at least six or eight yards in width all around it, should be stripped off, and partly taken away for the plantations or kitchen-garden, partly thrown up in a ridge round the stripped area; to be used, after the house is completed, in covering such portion of the ground as may ultimately be converted into garden. Space for the builders to work and trample upon will thus be left, and there will also be room for depositing the clay or rubbish from the foundations. Beyond what will finally be wanted round the house itself, the material from the foundations should, however, be at once taken where it will be required, which will save the trouble of moving it twice.

To prevent the workmen employed in building the house, and those engaged in carting materials to it, from making footpaths or roads over all parts of the ground, it will be prudent, as soon as the foundations for the house are excavated, to cut out the principal approach, drive, or walk, and fill it with rough stone or gravel, fit for carting and walking upon, so as to confine every one as much as possible to the use of this.

Fences of all kinds will next engage attention. It will natu rally be concluded that one of the first things to do is to make the boundary fences perfect, due regard being had to the chosen points of entrance. The inner fences, such as that round the pleasure-grounds, may afterwards be fixed. And where kitchengarden or other walls have to be erected, they should be begun in good time, that the builder's workmen may be got out of the way before it be necessary to commence on the ground-work. In short, no trenching or levelling should be attempted in any part