208 THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIBT. [September, 



COUPLING LINKS BETWEEN PANELLED WALLS AND 



FLOWER BEDS. 



<T is generally a difficult, it often seems an impossible, art gradually to let 

 down Architecture among Floritecture, — to coin a word. Some do it suddenly, 

 with a rush. They make no attempt at a gradual bringing together of these 

 '^ very distinct forms of beauty. They boldly run up flat masses of flowers, 

 or fat lumpy shrubberies, to chaste architectural lines, and leave them there as 

 evidence of their want of the organ of congruity or fitness. Others strain at 

 effect, by placing the statuesque and picturesque in the most violent contrast. 

 Common bracken, furze, or a thicket of wood, nestle around the outer base of 

 some of our highly artistic garden walls. But the contrast is too violent to be 

 agreeable. On the outer boundary line such a sharp division between nature and 

 art may be permitted ; but, as between different portions of the pleasure-ground, 

 or interposed between the main walks and the flower garden, as such screens 

 sometimes are, they have an overstrained effect, offensive to refined taste, and 

 incompatible with true art. 



We are rich in subjects that will harmonize, and as it were form stepping- 

 stones between architecture and floritecture. Hollyhocks among herbaceous 

 plants, and all kinds of spiral-headed trees, will harmonize with every form of 

 architectural line, and bridge over the entire distance between walls or houses 

 and groups of trees or shrubs, or mere flat masses of flowers, with the utmost 

 ease. By securing easy gradations, the forms melt, as it were, from the one 

 point into the other. 



I will venture to give an example of this mode of planting, which has been a 

 good deal admired. It has at least the merit of cheapness and simplicity, and 

 of being readily adapted or fitted into almost any position. The wall in 

 question constitutes the boundary of a terrace walk, over a hundred yards 

 long and fourteen feet wide. On the other side is a ribbon border running the 

 entire length, and backing up against a portion of the chief range of glass. 

 The wall is 18 in. thick, 3i ft. high, and set off with pillars 2 ft. square, at 

 distances of 20 ft. apart. At each end of the terrace the piers are run up on 

 each side to a height of 13 ft., and surmounted by handsome unplanted vases. 

 The centre space across the ends is filled in with a chaste pattern of blue and 

 gold iron-work, pierced through at each end with gates to match. Half-way in 

 this length the wall is likewise pierced by a pair of gates of the same pattern, 

 but only of the height of the wall. These lead into or across the centre of a 

 large ornamental flower garden, with a handsome stone fountain as the attraction 

 in a line with the gates. The pillars of the wall are each furnished with 

 rather flat-formed vases, filled with scarlet Pelargoniums. The flower garden 

 stretches away about forty yards from this wall ; then follows a lofty double arch 

 of roses, and at a higher elevation, a second terrace walk, over 300 yards long 



