ON ORNAMENTAL GARDENING. 125 



all as his fancy or taste suggests. And neither is the painter con- 

 fined to the real character of the trees, and shrubs, and herbs 

 which he introduces into his picture ; a burdock, or other mon- 

 strous weed on his foreground, answers his purpose as well as the 

 finest plant in cultivation. Such worthless plants in a painting 

 give no offence to the beholder in any way ; and, moreover, the 

 rudest, wildest scene may be preferred for the canvas, but which 

 is seldom or never required to be, nor indeed ever should be 

 formed by the gardener, because the most trifling mark of art 

 about such a work robs it qf every charm which it would other- 

 wise possess. 



The landscape gardener arranges all the ornamental planting 

 of the park, and particularly near the house. Here comfort, con- 

 venience, cleanliness, and every other sign of high keeping and 

 art must prevail ; here all the taste and skill of the gardener 

 should be displayed ; here his ideas are peculiarly applicable ; 

 and when these foreground dispositions are fixed, he has to design 

 and connect the scenery of the park therewith, and that of the 

 surrounding country with both. 



In the execution of all this, the most refined taste, united with 

 a large share of practical, botanical, and arboricultural knowledge 

 is absolutely necessary; and in this it is said the professional ideas 

 of the painter would be available. Let us suppose, then, that a 

 Claude Lorraine were engaged with the gardener in laying out an 

 English garden ; the trim neatness, smoothness, and regular edges 

 of the walks and borders of the latter, would offend the eye of the 

 former, who would rather see roughness, intricacy, and indis- 

 tinctness prevail. This, however, would not be suffered near the 

 abode of refinement and affluence ; but the painter would advise 

 the gardener to conceal his hard lines ; to break the uniformity of 

 the clumps ; to give variety to the masses of planting, by asso- 

 ciations of trees and shrubs of different tints and character ; to 

 place on the foreground the strongest growing herbs, the coarsest 

 featured shrubs, and the quickest growing trees to flank the vistas 

 which he would wish to have extended across the park, or which 

 would let in distant objects of interest in the country beyond. 

 The painter would also advise but few single trees to be planted, 

 without having a few shrub like growths near their base ; and 

 also that all clumps and groups should be of one kind of tree, 

 irregular in outline, and intermixed with under-growths, to creep 

 out on the turf around thcin. 



