194 THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



beauty of which increases as the flowers depart, and so prolongs the season 

 for enjoying nature out of doors. Trees and shrubs are too often planted 

 without regard to any rule whatever. They are stuck about, one here, 

 one there, and when the result is really pleasing to the critical eye, it is 

 the effect of chance, not of preconceived design ; and chance is, of course, 

 much more likely to lead to failures, than to successes. Chevreul, in his 

 instructive work on the laws of colour, to which we made special refer- 

 ence in our leader of June last,* devotes a section to an analysis of the 

 effects of variously tinted foliage in garden decoration, and advises the 

 assortment of trees of a red hue, with those of the most decided green, 

 and the association of bluish, or bluish-brown green, with a yellowish light 

 green. Followed out according to the elementary principles of the con- 

 trast and harmony of colour, the planting of woods, parks, and shrubberies, 

 offers to the artist opportunities for the production of pictures of the most 

 agreeable and varied kind, and though we have many examples of the 

 true application of these principles, such examples are by no means fre- 

 quent, because the principles themselves are not commonly known. 

 Chevreul, indeed, leaves his reader to apply his rides. He is chary of 

 furnishing details, and contents himself rather with setting forth the 

 method, than the manner of planting to this end. In discussing the 

 merits of lines of plants, he gives an example of two lines intended to 

 conceal a wall, and which are as follows : — First line : Almond-laurel, 

 Violet-lilac, Laburnum, Violet-lilac, and Almond-laurel again, in re- 

 petition. Second line : Clumps of Primus mahaleb only. In arranging 

 shrubs on a border, he advises, for future effect, Thuias, Almond-laurels, 

 succeeded by Hornbeam, Lilac, Privet, &c. ; and, for a border of Lilacs 

 only, he recommends the violet and the white to be planted alternately. 

 But if Chevreul is minute as to laws, and careless as to examples, those 

 who take an interest in this important subject, may find examples in plenty, 

 without much reference to the laws of arrangement, in a work specially 

 devoted to trees and shrubs, from the pen of Mr. Paul, of Cheshunt.j 



Though ostensibly devoted to one special class of plants, of which the 

 Rhododendron may be considered the representative, Mr. Paul enters into 

 the whole question of trees and shrubs, as materials in garden decorations, 

 and, after describing the formation of an American garden, proceeds to 

 embellish it with selections of evergreen and deciduous trees, according 

 to his own matured judgment and experience, and his refined taste in all 

 that pertains to the sources of pleasure in horticultural pursuits. "To 

 limit the choice of materials," he says, " would be to treat American plants 

 unfairly, for as most of them bloom in May and June, large tracts of 

 ground must be tame and monotonous at other periods of the year."' 

 Thereupon, Mr. Paul presents his readers with a selection of trees and 

 shrubs, arranged according to the tints of their foliage; and this selection, 

 we presume, will be equally interesting and useful to our readers at this 

 time of year, whether they cultivate Americans or not. Among ever- 

 greens with dark foliage, Mr. Paul enumerates the Phillyrea, the Irish 



* Ante page 123. 



f American Plants: tbeir History and Culture, &c. By William Paul, F.H.S., author of 

 the " Rose Garden," &c. Piper, Stephenson, and Spence. 



