With respect to lawns, the late Mr. Speede recommended the use of the doob grass, but it is so extremely difficult to keep it clear of any intermixture of the ooloo grass, which, when it intrudes upon the doob gives the lawn a patchwork and shabby look, that it is better to use the ooloo grass only, for it is far more manageable; and if kept well rolled and closely shorn it has a very neat, and indeed, beautiful appearance.  The lawns in the compound of the Government House in Calcutta are formed of ooloo glass only, but as they have been very carefully attended to they have really a most brilliant and agreeable aspect.  In fact, their beautiful bright green, in the hottest summer, attracts even the notice and admiration of the stranger fresh from England.  The ooloo grass, however, on close inspection is found to be extremely coarse, nor has even the finest doob the close texture and velvet softness of the grass of English lawns.

Flower beds should be well rounded.  They should never have long narrow necks or sharp angles in which no plant can have room to grow freely.  Nor should they be divided into compartments, too minute or numerous, for so arranged they must always look petty and toy-like.  A lawn should be as open and spacious as the ground will fairly admit without too greatly limiting the space for flowers.  Nor should there be an unnecessary multiplicity of walks.  We should aim at a certain breadth of style.  Flower beds may be here and there distributed over the lawn, but care should be taken that it be not too much broken up by them.  A few trees may be introduced upon the lawn, but they must not be placed so close together as to prevent the growth of the grass by obstructing either light or air.  No large trees should be allowed to smother up the house, particularly on the southern and western sides, for besides impeding the circulation through the rooms of the most wholesome winds of this country, they would attract mosquitoes, and give an air of gloominess to the whole place.

Natives are too fond of over-crowding their gardens with trees and shrubs and flowers of all sorts, with no regard to individual or general effects, with no eye to arrangement of size, form or color; and in this hot and moist climate the consequent exclusion of free air and the necessary degree of light has a most injurious influence not only upon the health of the resident but upon vegetation itself.  Neither the finest blossoms nor the finest fruits can be expected from an overstocked garden.  The native malee generally plants his fruit trees so close together that they impede each other’s growth and strength.  Every Englishman when he enters a native’s garden feels how much he could improve its productiveness and beauty by a free use of the hatchet.  Too many trees and too much embellishment of a small garden make it look still smaller, and even on a large piece of ground they produce confused and disagreeable effects