272 EDGINGS FOR GARDEN WALKS 



of flowers on a lawn must have struck most individuals of taste as 

 a meagre and unsatisfactory production. Indeed this wretched 

 mode of planting is not less mean and poverty-stricken in its 

 effect, than in its universality throughout the country ; a circum- 

 stance as much to be deplored as condemned, deplored because of 

 the paucity of existing taste, and condemned because of the 

 undignified effect all' such arrangements produce on minds 

 capable of appreciating anything beyond this semibarbarous mode 

 of gardening. If there existed no appliances to correct this state 

 of tilings, or no means by which they could be improved, then a 

 valid excuse would exist, but the contrary is the fact ; materials 

 of various descriptions are abundantly at command to wipe away 

 this effete practice. 



In order therefore to show how improvement may be intro- 

 duced, and how simple are the means by which it is effected, 

 we may take as an example a circular bed on a lawn, although 

 the form of the bed signifies little as far as regards the object to 

 be illustrated ; plant a margin of some suitable evergreen shrubs, 

 such as I shall presently enumerate as eligible for the purpose: 

 then introduce the flowering-plants ; when they have made some 

 growth, let this bed be compared with one destitute of the edging; 

 an artistic eye will readily detect the finish of the one, and the 

 scanty meagreness of the other. This not only applies to flower- 

 beds, but to masses of dwarf shrubs under gardening identical 

 with that to which we have been more immediately referring. I 

 may here observe by way of caution, that application of verges 

 to masses of flowers and shrubs is not to be understood as indis- 

 pensable in every case, or in every situation, because such a line 

 of demarcation would destroy the character and intention of 

 grounds planted in a natural and varied style, where the shrubs 

 are intended to develope their individual contour by allowing 

 their branches to rest upon the lawn, and enable them to display 

 their various and peculiar outlines. 



The kinds of shrubs suitable for edgings are much more 

 numerous than is generally supposed. Let me conclude these 

 remarks by appending the names of such as may be employed in 

 garnishing the margins of flower-beds and shrubs. And let me 

 also observe that these edgings may be contrasted with as much 

 propriety and effect as the flowering-plants usually employed in 

 furnishing geometrical flower gardens. 



In the winter months such edgings give an increased interest 

 and character which naked beds of soil do not possess. 



