Perhaps on no subject connected with horticulture is there more need of information than suitable decorations for the garden, or Garden Furniture, if we may be allowed the expressive term, embracing arbors, seats, trellises, and other structures of use and ornament in the garden. How often, when viewing gardens of the greatest pretensions, are we compelled to walk from one end to the other, through beautiful shady walks and quiet nooks, without finding a resting place - no rustic seat inviting us to enjoy to its fullest extent the quiet beauty'of the scene.

In the country there is no necessity for large parlors - the garden is the country parlor. Our drawing-rooms are deserted by our friends and visitors - they are to be found examining our rare shrubs and flowers - promenading our garden walks - reclining on the lawn, enjoying the grateful shade and cooling breeze. How necessary, then, that that garden furniture should be convenient and appropriate; that proper resting places be provided, to insure the fullest enjoyment of the garden by ourselves and our friends.

As in all other matters requiring taste, we often see great errors made in the introduction of garden ornaments. How common is it to see elaborate carpenter-work, painted a brilliant green or dazzling white painful to look upon, supporting a slender climber, when a simple cedar pole with perhaps a few wires would have been a much cheaper and better support. So in regard to seats, "summer-houses," etc. In our cottage grounds of an acre or two we make a great mistake in imitating the fine architectural designs that are very appropriate when used in the extensive grounds of some European palace, with which it is in keeping, but sadly out of place in the grounds of our less pretending but perhaps not less beautiful cottage homes. As a general thing, simple rustic work made of the limbs of trees with the bark on, worked into simple and appropriate designs, is the most appropriate, though we have observed some pretty designs in iron. But even in the use of rustic work we have lately seen some sad violations of good taste.

The veranda is no place for rustic seats - the seats there should be in keeping with the style of the house; yet we have seen some of these seats even admitted into the hall.

We have made-these remarks as an introduction to a few designs from Mcintosh's Book of the Garden:

"Around cottage and villa residences, nothing is so appropriate as the natural style of gardening, and no ornament so proper as rustic work; but that should always be of a substantial and tasteful description. An ingenious correspondent in The Gardener's Magazine, vol. x., p. 485, on this subject remarks: 'One advantage of wooden rustic work is, that it can be adapted to a great variety of purposes. Thus very beautiful, and even very architectural temples may be formed of unbarked wood. Ornamental doors, every description of garden seats, and flower-baskets, and vases of very elegant forms, may be composed of the same material. Shady walks also, having the shady gloom and enriched effect of a Gothic cloister, may be made of wooden rustic work: indeed, there is scarcely any kind of garden ornament to which it may not be applied. I allude,' continues this correspondent, ' more particularly to what I call wood mosaic, which is, I believe, rather a modern invention. It is formed of split sticks, of various lengths and sizes, and having bark of different colors. The pieces are nailed to any flat surface of wood, and very beautiful and elaborate patterns may be produced by arranging the pieces according to thir sizes and the various colors of their barks.

Elegant garden seats, and vases of almost any shape, may be covered with this kind of mosaic work; but as it is not durable when constantly exposed to the weather, it is the most suitable for the inside of summer-houses and garden temples. In such situations, the richest specimens may be introduced, and, if varnished over, they would last for a number of years.'

"In corroboration of this, we may state that there are summer-houses in Dalkeith Park of this description that have stood uninjured for nearly forty years.

"Structures, such as arbors, moss-houses, etc., should be always placed in positions to command a perfect view of some object of interest; indeed, this should not be lost sight of in placing seats and all other appendages, whether for shelter or repose. Some excellent structures of this kind have lately been erected through the very varied grounds at Drumlanrig Castle; and so spacious are some of them, that not only the family and their visitors, but their attendants also, can find shelter in them.

Our first figure in frontispiece is "thatched with heath, attached to the timbers of the roof with tarred cord, but, for appearance sake, secured with four bands of rope made of Polytrichium commune, or any other similar strong-growing moss. The interior of the roof is first lathed, as it were, with hazel rods about one inch apart, into the spaces between which mosses of various colors are thrust firmly in; and by so doing, the whole of the roof is completely covered. The different colors may be placed in concentric circles or zones, or in any other pattern the artist chooses. The back and sides, as high as three feet above the seat, are covered with larch, hazel, or other strait-growing rods; and, if divided into panels, the rods may be so arranged as to produce any device desired; and for the purpose of effecting this in a proper manner, that part to be so covered should be lined with boarding, and the device drawn upon it with chalk or black coal. The seat is supported upon rustic legs in front, and to the timbers of the structure behind; it is then covered with planking, and that with small rods similar to the back and sides.

The front of the roof is supported upon columns of larch, oak, or any other kind of wood, having the bark on; the arches at top are easily constructed by using two pieces of curved wood; creeping plants are planted at their base, and trained over them and round the circular heads of the doorways. The spaces over the doorways may be either filled in with rods placed closely together, or in open lattice-work, according to taste.