What a stately flower it is! and, in the paler variety, of what an exquisite yellow! I always fancy _Fritillaria Imperialis flava_ to be dressed in silk from the Flowery Land--that robe of imperial yellow which only General Gordon and the blood royal of China are entitled to wear! "All is fine that is fit." And is the "bedding-out" system--Ribbon-gardening--ever fit, and therefore ever fine?
My little friend, I am inclined to think that it sometimes is.

For long straight borders in parks and public promenades, for some terrace garden on a large scale, viewed perhaps from windows at a considerable distance, and, in a general way, for pleasure-grounds ordered by professional skill, and not by an _amateur_ gardener (which, mark you, being interpreted, is gardener _for love_!), the bedding-out style _is_ good for general effect, and I think it is capable of prettier ingenuities than one often sees employed in its use.

I think that, if I ever gardened in this expensive and mechanical style, I should make "arrangements," a la Whistler, with flowers of various shades of the same colour.

But harmony and gradation of colour always give me more pleasure than contrast.
Then, besides the fitness of the gardening to the garden, there is the fitness of the garden to its owner; and the owner must be considered from two points of view, his taste, and his means.

Indeed, I think it would be fair to add a third, his leisure.
Now, there are owners of big gardens and little gardens, who like to have a garden (what Englishman does not ?), and like to see it gay and tidy, but who don't know one flower from the rest.