225 



PARTERRE. 



turf, or a raised terrace-walk of 

 grass or gravel . 



Fig. 37 will give an idea of a 

 regular flo'n'er-garden ; which, may 

 be made architectural by laying the 

 walks with flag-stones, and placing 

 fountains and statues in the circles : 

 and fig 3S is a plan of the flower- 

 garden at Dropmore, certainly one 

 of the most beautiful in England. 



FIG. 38.— DBOPMORE GARDEN. 



Other designs may easily be made 

 on paper, and transferred to the 

 ground, by dividing the space to be 

 laid out into squares with chalked 

 strings, and making corresponding 

 squares over the plan. 



In planting parterres there are 

 two different systems ; one is to 

 plant only one kind of flower in a 



I bed so as that each bed shall be a 

 I mass of one colour, and the other is 

 I to plant flowers of diff"erent colours 

 ! in the same bed. It is almost 

 I needless to state that the former 

 i system is by far the best for general 

 and striking efi"ect ; but as a par- 

 terre is frequently a kind of botanic 

 garden, and as in this case it is 

 desirable to keep all the species of a 

 genus together, flowers of all colours 

 must occasionally occur in the same 

 bed. In general, botanical par- 

 terres should not be mixed with 

 parterres for eff'ect, because the one 

 kind never fails greatly to injure 

 the other. 



In planting parterres for general 

 effect, the colours should be arranged 

 so that those which are adjoining 

 each other should be contrasts ; and 

 those which occupy corresponding 

 parts of the same figiire should be 

 the same. For example, suppose a 

 bed on one side of the centre to be 

 planted with yellow flowers, the 

 corresponding bed on the other side 

 (the figure being symmetrical^ should 

 also be planted with the same kind 

 of yellow flowers, for the sake of 

 preserving the symmetry. Some- 

 times the corresponding bed of 

 colours may be planted with a dif- 

 ferent species, having flowers of the 

 same colour which appear at the 

 same time, but in general this cannot 

 be done successfully, partly on 

 account of the different shades of 

 colours, but chiefly because it is 

 scarcely possible to get two plants 

 of different species, even though 

 they are of the same colour and 

 flower at the same time, that will 

 prove so exactly alike as to have 

 the same aspect. The colours which 

 contrast with one another are gene- 

 rally well known, particularly to 

 ladies ; such as blue and yellow, 

 orange and purple, red and green, 

 &c. ; and in practice any two 



