Having seen the mode of distributing trees and plants adopted by the majority of gardeners, in the present and in former times, and their natural distribution in this country, and in every other, it may now be asked what mode we recommend to be adopted. To which we answer, briefly, an improvement on the present system, with some innovations, for which a sufficient, reason will be given. Improvements in gardening, as in every other art, can only be effected by degrees; and it rarely happens that any individual can do more than make a slight advance before bis contemporaries. The principles on which we propose to distribute trees, shrubs, and flowers, in parks and pleasure-grounds, are the following: I. Trees and Shrubs. - Choice of kinds.

1. We would introduce generally in every place, whether large or small, as many different species and varieties as would thrive in it; in small places, having no more than a single plant of each species or variety; but, in larger ones, introducing duplicates, triplicates, or a greater number, according to the extent of the place, but keeping each kind by itself.

3. Where the object was ornament, novelty, or variety, we would generally prefer kinds foreign to the country, or, at all events to the locality; but, where the object was chiefly timber, shelter from high winds, coppice-wood, hedges, etc we would prefer indigenous species.

8. In places so small as not to admit of even one plant of each species and variety, we would give the preference to foreign kinds, and would generally exclude such as are indigenous, except greatly improved varieties.

4. In general, even where the space would allow of the introduction of the indigenous species, we would only plant them in small quantities, and chiefly for the purpose of rendering the collection of sorts complete, or for harmonising the woods of a residence among themselves, or with those of the adjoining residences, or for preserving artistical effect; unless, indeed, the object were timber, or other useful products, in which case we would plant these to the exclusion of the others, agreeably to Rule 2.

5. We would give the preference to such kinds as were likely to thrive best in the given soil and situation.

6. We would adopt various modes of distribution, according to the object in view, either in the entire place, or in different parts of it.

7. In the park scenery, and in larger plantations, trees should prevail, and in the pleasure-grounds, and in the lawn near the house, shrubs: because the former are more grand, and the latter more beautiful; and because those in the park require to resist horses, cattle, etc., while all domestic quadrupeds are excluded from the pleasure-grounds.

8. Near the house, or in what may be considered the more select parts of the grounds, we would make choice of the more rare and beautiful species or varieties, without reference to the countries where they are indigenous.

9. Near the house and offices, the prevailing kinds should be evergreens; and these should be introduced, to a greater or less extent, in almost all the plantations of the place.

10. Marshy situations are those where evergreens are least natural; because there are few kinds that grow in marshes. On the other hand, most evergreens either grow naturally, or will thrive in sand. Hence, in artificial scenery, the presence of evergreens always implies a dry soil and healthy situation.

11. In general, a plantation where the trees are deciduous, should have a portion of the shrubs introduced among them evergreens; and, on the contrary, where the trees are chiefly evergreens, a considerable portion of the undergrowth ought to be deciduous.

12. Throughout the greater part of the grounds, where any distribution might be adopted at pleasure, we would place such together as require the same soil and situation, or are generally found growing in the same locality in their native country, or are obviously allied by nature. This would bring together, in some places, trees and shrubs requiring moist soils, such as the willow, poplar, alder, &c; in others, such as required peat or bog. or as thrive best in these soils, as is the case with all the Ericaceae, and with most of the American trees and shrubs: it would also bring together such natural families as the Quercinae, the oaks all requiring good soil; and the Coniferae, as all requiring a soil comparatively dry and sandy.

18. While we arranged the general masses of the trees and shrubs of a place, so as to produce broad distinctive features, we would introduce certain species throughout the greater part of the plantations (though only sparingly), for the sake of harmonising the scenery of the particular residence with the scenery of the residences or of the country lying round it. The harmonising plants, in both cases, will be most effective when they are evergreens; but there ought, also, to be some of deciduous kinds, in order to admit of uniting an evergreen mass with an adjoining deciduous one.

14. As the species for harmonising the plantations of a residence within itself should sot be of large size, and should be such as are acknowledged to be beautiful, and also known to general observers, in order that the harmony may be felt by all, the holly, the box, the laurustinua, and the American thorns are very suitable for this purpose.

15. To harmonise the plantations of a residence with those of the residences around it, the more conspicuous kinds of trees in the latter require to be introduced (though only sparingly) in the former. Thus, if in one part of the plantarions of the adjoining residences, near the boundary fence, pines should prevail; then, two or three, or more, of the same sort of pines should be introdnoed within the boundary of the central residence; and Author in the interior there may also be one or two of this species of pine. The same remarks will apply in the ease of exterior plantations of oak or other trees, or of coppice-wood; but much of the good effect of carrying this idea into execution will depend on the taste and judgment of the planter.

16. In general, we would adopt the gardenesqne manner of planting trees and shrubs, especially in the pleasure-ground, and near the house; but, in more distant parts of the ground, we might adopt the picturesque mode, for the sake of variety and of taring labour; and this mode might also become necassary, in some cases, for harmonising the scenery within with the external scenery.

17. On no account whatever would we introduce nurse plants, as they are called, or common sorts, for the sake of covering the surface, in a plantation where ornament was the principal object in view. Such nurse plants, and common kinds put in to fill up, exhaust the soil by their roots; and, by the shade and shelter affored by their tops, draw up the plants to be nursed in such a slender, sickly state, that, when the nurses are removed, the principal plants that remain are weak and unsightly; whereas, had they grown up without the unmet, they would have been bushy and handsome on every side. After all that has been experienced and written in favour of introducing nurse plants in plantations, we are very much inclined to question whether anything is gained by it in the end. It must be recol-leetod, that, at the time when nurses were most strongly recommended by planters, the importance of exposing as large a surface as possible of the foliage of every plant to the sun and air was not understood; and the circumstance that the nurses, from being the stronger plants, must necessarily draw the greater proportion of the nourishment from the soil, and in that respect retard the progress of the plants to be nursed, seems to have been overlooked.

It is not denied that nurses will draw up young plants: but it is a question whether a plantation, say of oaks, for example drawn up according to the best practice by nurses, and another plantation of oaks alone, not drawn up either by nurses or by one another, would not arrive at the same height in sixty or eighty years after planting; and, if so, there can be no doubt that the latter would be of greater bulk.

18. The gardenesque manner of planting and managing includes the application of pruning and thinning, at all future periods of the growth of the trees and shrubs, so as to keep each plant perfectly distinct from those around it. The picturesque manner of planting also employs thinning and pruning; but the object of these, in this style of gardening. is less definite; being for the purpose of throwing the plantation into groups, or to increase the growth of underwood at some places, or of tall trees at others; and for similar objects connected with the production of picturesque beauty and shelter, shade, or timber.

19. The proportion of surface, in a park or pleasure-ground, which we would cover with wood, will depend on the degree of variation in that surface. In flat grounds, a very small quantity of trees and shrubs is required in proportion to the extent of turf; and the contrary is the case in very irregular surfaces.