MONTHLY CALENDAR. 555 



is not SO good as black with red and orange, nor does it produce so violent a 

 contrast as white. 



1729. Then, again, with regard to the proportion of light and dark 

 colours, whenever the colours differ too much, either in their tone or by the 

 brilliancy of the black or white associated with them, the arrangement in which 

 each of the two colours is separated by black or by white is preferable to- 

 that in which the black or the white separates each couple of colours. 



1730. Thus the arrangement — white, blue, white, violet, &c., is better 

 than the arrangement, white, blue, violet, white, &c. ; so black, red, black, 

 orange, black, &c., is better than black, red, orange, black, &c. 



1 73 1. Colours are also separated into cool and warm colours. The former 

 should prevail in gardens laid out on gravel, which is itself generally a 

 warm colour ; the latter in those laid out on grass, which is invariably a cold 

 colour. For instance, in gardens on gravel, grey, lilac, yellow, white, blue, 

 green, &c., should predominate ; in those on grass, purple, pink, scarlet, 

 and orange should prevail. White, however, is equally suitable for gardens 

 of both descriptions, and, unless where the gravel is very light, is always 

 striking and effective ; and nothing can well be more chaste or beautiful than 

 beds, broad margins, or lines of white contiguous to grass, — it is equally 

 striking in juxta-position to bright red gravel. As a practical rule, the most 

 intense colours should be placed in the centre of beds, and the less decided 

 tints used for contrasting rings or edgings. Generally, too, the smaller the 

 beds the more liberally may the intense colours — as scarlet, &c. — be intro- 

 duced, and vice versd. A bed containing fifty plants of Messrs. Woodroof 's 

 or Kobinson's Defiance verbena is a gem of beauty ; a large bed of 500 dazzles 

 and offends by its excessive glare. In nearly all cases, such masses require 

 broad margins of complementary or contrasting hues to impart the charm of 

 softness and subdued beauty. The cool colours already noticed, and neutrals, 

 — that is, mixed hues or plants of no very decided colours, — are often used 

 with the happiest effect to soften and tone down the influence of very bril- 

 liant tints. Much exception has been taken to the present style of furnishing 

 flower-gardens, on the ground of the monotony or flatness of surface it induces. 

 Some would be inclined to designate it a dead sea, and I must admit that it 

 is often a level plain of beauty. But it should be borne in mind that smoothness 

 and evenness of surface is one of the elements of beauty. Besides, to enjoy 

 beauty in masses, the eye must be able to see it at a glance. Nothing must be 

 too high to intercept the hue of vision, and break up unity of expression and 

 oneness of effect, compelling us to look at it in detail only. Every separate 

 part of a garden, like a picture, should be beautiful in itself ; but all should 

 appear subservient to the grandeur of the whole. Hence the superiority of 

 the present to the old-fashioned plan of furnishing the flower-garden. It is 

 not so much that we have more and better flowers (although we have this), 

 but it is chiefly that they are more tastefully disposed and better seen. This 

 also constitutes one of the chief charms of Dutch, or sunk gardens. Standing 

 at a considerable elevation above them, the eye sees, and the mind compre- 



