THE 



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May, 1861. 



_^^ ^ v^ "^ OLOFE, like sound, is the subject of law, and harmonies of 

 *^r^rV ^) *n '') h^i-^s are as easily determined as harmonies in musical 

 iM^^Ml/^W' chords. That which is in accordance with good taste is 



7^^''^^^ '-V' also in accordance with the principles of science ; for, after 

 rr^^€^^^//j sllj taste is only the application to decorative purposes of the 

 ' ; ,^o^p^l^-^/^J principles taught by sound philosophy. Yet there has been 

 '^yC^ Cfy niuch said on the subject of colour in gardening which has 

 L * 1 proved to be incorrect, and the mistakes of theoretical colour- 

 V ^/ ists have generally arisen through their recognition of too 

 ( ) few of the data on which judgments should be founded. In 



designing a damask, the artist must know what is to be the 

 ground colour, but in devising schemes of planting, the ground colour has 

 generally been forgotten, and heterogeneous mixtures instead of agreeable 

 harmonies have too often been the result. Therefore, in devising a scheme 

 of flower embroidery, or in planting a group of beds, or a breadth of 

 ribbon lines, the whole must have a recognized relation to the ground 

 colour, or the result will be a violation of harmonies. Generally speaking 

 we have three distinct classes of ground colour on which to paint our 

 flower mosaics, and these consist of walks, soil, and turf. Geometric 

 patterns on sand and gravel, have usually a ground hue of ochreous brown, 

 ferruginous red, or tawny amber. In chalk districts the paths are white, 

 in coal districts they are frequently black ; in the majority of places the 

 colour of well washed gravel, though that varies from deep orange red to 

 pale straw colour. Then the soil varies in colour from the red of Dart- 

 moor to the black of the New Forest, from the slaty blue of some veins 

 of the London clay to the gray and tawny hues of various sands and 

 loams. As to the turf, whether of grass or spergula, that is pretty uniform, 

 but on heathy districts the grass is not exactly of the same hue of green 

 as on a wet clay or fertile loam. One consequence of this recognition of 

 the importance of ground colour is, that every scheme of planting should 

 be determined on the spot, where the eye can judge at once as to the 

 nature of the elements required, and the style of their combination. The 



VOL. IV. NO. V. r 



