XXVlll INTRODUCTION. 



necessarily on that account less beautiful, details. The 

 principles involved in the practice of the massing system 

 are not different from those that should guide the artist 

 in the mixed style. The materials are different, and the 

 aims and modes distinct, in both styles ; but colour, 

 stature, and general fitness and congruity, must be 

 regarded with equal care in the one as in the other, if 

 taste and beauty are to be exemplified in either. And 

 there is this superiority in the mixed style over the 

 massing, that the individuality of the plants is not alto- 

 gether swallowed up in the general effect. This is no 

 small matter if we are to regard our gardens and flowers 

 as means that may be turned to valuable account in 

 expanding the mind and drawing out the higher feelings 

 of our natures. Colour, as one of its uses, was possibly 

 stamped on flowers to invite us to a closer pondering 

 of their inner mysteries ; and if so, we are somewhat 

 prone — we gardeners, at least — to disregard its lurings, 

 and to look upon it as the only worshipful quality in 

 flowers. The habits of exact observation which are 

 acquired in the study of the structure and classification 

 of plants cannot fail to be useful to every one ; and 

 young gardeners in particular, whose duties in after-life 

 will make large demands on such habits, should, for that 

 if for no higher motive, exercise their faculties in that 

 way a little more assiduously than is their wont gener- 

 ally at the present time. 



Remarks on tJie Arrangeine7it of Mixed Borders. — It is 

 not easy, if it is even possible, to put on paper instruc- 

 tions for planting a mixed border on a definite plan. It 

 has been often attempted, but the result has always 

 been more or less vague. There are too many details 



