crouded in a nursery, or a crouded plantation, it is almost impossible to prune them, into forms which will please the eye. A low growing plant, which has been drawn up tall, and consists only of a few straggling boughs, spreading out like a fan, has been improved into a well looking shrub, by planting a low spreading sucker, in the same pit, and placing it in front, and so as to fill up the central vacancy: the two affording, in this combined form, a well furnished plant : a venial fraud, which may frequently be practised with advantage.

MINUTE THE EIGHTEENTH.

APRIL 1. In PRUNING SHRUBS, at the time of transplanting, much may be done towards the future appearance, as well as the future success of the plant. This is not to be effected by lopping off the ends of the twigs, in general, and thus giving the shrub the form of a cabbage; but by taking out the inferior branches, close to the stein or the thicker boughs; and even taking out some of these, so as to make breaks in the outline;-will often give additional feature and elegance to the plant; while, by thus reducing the top, the roots are rendered the better able to send up a supply of sustenance, to the parts which are left standing. Bb

VOL. I.

MINUTE THE NINETEENTH.

APRIL 2. In transplanting shrubs which throw up SUCKERS, these should be carefully laid aside, and placed in a nursery quarter, to acquire roots, and become a supply of plants, in future, at a small cost. Also, from neglected shrubs, which afford natural LAYERS, wherever the boughs touch the ground, each rooted twig should be sedulously collected.

MINUTE THE TWENTIETH.

APRIL 2. IN TRANSPLANTING top-heavy Evergreens, as Virginia Cedars, Junipers, Arbor-vites, &c. for STANDARDS, it is prudent to PLANT A SUPPORT with each of them. Not an ordinary stake, but a larger and more clubbed truncheon; placing the large end downward in the bottom of the pit, a straight part rising some few feet above the surface, and nearly close to the stem of the plant; which being fastened to it, by means of soft bandages, gains a seasonable firmness, without any outward appearance of support.

MINUTE THE TWENTYFIRST.

in

APRIL 7. IN LINING OUT WALKS, a slight covering of snow is advantageous, in shewing the track of the designer; which may be improved, as occasion may require. Stakes, though proper lining a plantation, as shewing at once the effect of the intended fence, or of the marginal shrubs, may tend to deceive the eye, in the effect of a walk ; whereas a track, whether in snow, or on the surface of broken ground, or given by a sharp instrument, drawn by a second person, so as to ripple the surface of green turf, is in effect the walk; differing only in width, from the walk itself, when finished.

In wild or fortuitous scenery, the first devious track will generally have the best effect. But, in highly embellished grounds, it requires to be lined out, with scrupulous attention to the beauty and gracefulness, which ought to mark every line, in polished scenery.

WHEN a walk winds across a lawn, broken by tufts and relieves of shrubs, it should appear as if attracted by the various beauties of the scene: it.

should make boldly towards them, hang to their margins, and seem to leave them with reluctance.

In tracing paths, through plantations of tall growing trees, intended to rise into groves, the trees themselves should seem to direct the path, which of course ought not to be determined on before the trees are planted. In plantations formed of tall transplanted trees, such paths may be formed immediately after the trees are put in; otherwise, they should be deferred until the trees are grown up, and the obstructing plants be removed in the thinnings: the direction of the path being determined (but not formally marked), by evergreen underwood, as Holly, Privet, Box, or cuttings of Laurel, at the time of planting. Narrow pathways, no matter how intricate, may wind in among the young plants, for the purpose of rendering the plantation itself commodious, in viewing, thinning, or pruning the plants. A path three feet wide is sufficient for this purpose.

NARROW paths of this kind render a plantation commodious, and are formed at a trifling expence. The middle of the path is the natural surface of the ground, a sloping channel being struck with a spade on either side: this, and pruning off the boughs which shoot towards the path, affords the required accommodation.

MINUTE THE TWENTYSECond.

APRIL 10. FENCES IN ORNAMENTED SCENERY. For the security of highly kept grounds, the Foss, accompanied with masses and tufts of wood, is the most eligible; as giving the eye the least restraint, and as serving best to assimilate the immediate environs of the house, with the contiguous park or pasture grounds*.

BUT, in the lower styles of ornament, a less expensive boundary is preferable: and for the fence of a plantation, not included within the limits of the kept grounds, but still within distinct view from the house and its environs, a simple guard, sufficient against pasturing animals, without being offensive to the eye, is the only requisite.

THAT which, after much consideration, we adopted and executed, here, is a sloping ditch and reclining bank, with a dwarf rail fence, hanging in the face of it, at such a distance as to prevent cattle from climbing over it, and sheep from creeping beneath it; and with a line of hedgewood on the inner side, when its use is to guard a plantation.

See the REVIEW of the LANDSCAPE, &c. p. 231.