It is almost impossible to suggest any plan in the arrangement of the flower garden that can be generally adopted, even on principle, much less in detail. So much depends upon the size, form and situation of the plot to be ornamented, together with its natural advantages, that it is not easy, if it is even possible, to put on paper instructions for planting a mixed border on a definite plan, as too many details are involved to admit of its being made intelligible. To a great extent the selection and arrangement of plants is a matter of individual taste. Our best gardens are filled with plants selected with the one object of the gratification of the owner's taste; and there are as many tastes to please as there are gardens to plant. But there are some general principles to be understood ; their ap-lication will depend wholly upon circumstances. We will state these principles briefly, and leave to those interested the detail of management.

First and most important, the border should be so composed as to be more or less replete with interest at all points and at all times; if not with flowers, at least in foliage and in diversity of individual aspect. In order to bring about this result the planter must know the plants, their height, color, habit, their general appearance at all seasons, time of flowering, and the duration of the flowers. Skill and taste in grouping must do the rest.

Plants must be graceful to be truly beautiful. Strange forms may be curious and interesting, but real beauty consists of elegance, grace, symmetry, united with harmony of color. Perfect forms are the only graceful ones. An object to look graceful must look natural. It must not be tied out of shape; on the contrary, it should have sufficient room for its perfect development in its natural form, and there may be no impertinent interference of art in its growth. A trailing plant must not be made to climb, nor a climber to trail. Neither trim up a shrub to assume a tree form, nor cripple a tree by " cutting back *' until it becomes a shrub.

No more plants should be selected than will be sufficient to fill the border without crowding, even after they have attained full stature. Harmony of color, harmony of form, and agreeable contrasts of both, are of the greatest importance. Without these harmonies there will be no pleasing effects. Although we would encourage an acquaintance with hardy herbaceous plants, yet we would not recommend their exclusive use in the mixed border, their appropriate place.

It might be possible in some localities to make a selection of hardy perennials alone, capable of keeping up a lively interest in the garden from March to December, and it would be difficult to keep up that interest without them. They are the essential ground work of a good garden. They are the only plants that give flowers in early spring and for many weeks in autumn, after the frost has killed the more tender forms.

Good annuals and bedding plants are invaluable materials in the arrangement of the planting for summer flowers, and their use cannot profitably be dispensed with. They should, however, be regarded as aids, not chiefs, and be allotted their position in the garden according to rank. Annuals are particularly useful to take the place of spring-flowering bulbs. When started in the hot-bed or in the house, they will be nearly ready to flower by the time the weather is warm enough to plant them out in the border, which is about the same time the hyacinths and tulips have lost their beauty, thus keeping up a succession of bloom the entire season. These bulbs by nature belong to the border, with other herbaceous plants, and should be interspersed with stronger and later flowering plants, as their bloom is perfected before other forms have made much growth ; over these bulbs annuals may be planted as before suggested. Spring-flowering plants, owing to their usually low stature, as a rule, are to be planted at the front of mixed borders; and in so far as concerns many of the fibrous-rooted evergreen and deciduous species, the practice should be the same.

But with regard to the spring-flowering bulbs, there does not appear to be any reason why they should be crowded to the front of the border in the same way, notwithstanding that they are in most cases of a dwarf habit. Their foliage is in the way for only a short period, and may often be removed earlier than it is without injury to the plants. The advantages that would be obtained, therefore, by planting them in the spaces between the summer-flowering plants all over the border are obvious.

The fringy and irregular appearance in spring that results from the practice of crowding flowers of that period to the front of the border would be done away with, and every part of the surface unoccupied with dormant plants might be as richly varied and beautiful then as at any other time.

To sum up in a few words : So arrange the hardy plants that there will be at all times a happy blending of form and color, so that there will be a continuous change of bloom without affecting the har-mony of color. In this arrangement there will not be found large masses of color, but rather pleasant clumps of flowers, constantly changing form and position, yet ever in perfect harmony. The annuals and bedding plants used as aids will be so intermixed as to produce the same effect.

This arrangement will show the gardener's art to advantage. He must ever have an abundance of flowers, and will be compelled from time to time to change the position of his plants. Hardy forms require frequent changing; division is a frequent necessity. A rotation of crops is as important in the border as in the field. It matters not how much feed a plant has, a change of locality, even a few feet, is essential to its perfect development. In their native habitats, herbaceous plants are constantly on the move, slowly, to be sure, but steadily. Some forms will remain long in a given position, but few thrive as well as when occasionally they are given a new soil and a new home. C. L. Allen.