THE TECHNICS OF GARDENING. 169 



an agreement as to the use of hardy flowers in these 

 beds. Mr Robinson has some good advice to give 

 upon this point (" EngHsh Flower Garden," p. 24) : 

 " The ugHest and most needless parterre (!) in 

 England may be planted in the most beautiful way 

 with hardy flowers alone." (Why "needless," then?) 

 "Are we not all wrong in adopting one degree, so to 

 say, of plant life as the only fitting one to lay before 

 the house .^ Is it well to devote the flower-bed to 

 one type of vegetation only — low herbaceous vege- 

 tation — be that hardy or tender ? . . . We have 

 been so long accustomed to leave flower-beds raw, 

 and to put a number of plants out every year, form- 

 ing flat surfaces of colour, that no one even thinks 

 of the higher and better way of filling them. But 

 surely it is worth considering whether it would not 

 be right to fill the beds permanently, rather than to 

 leave them in this naked or flat condition throughout 

 the whole of the year. ... If any place asks for 

 permanent planting, it is the spot of ground im- 

 mediately near the house ; for no one can wish to 

 see large, grave-like masses of soil frequently dug 

 and disturbed near the windows, and few care for 

 the result of all this, even when the ground is well 

 covered during a good season." Again our author, 

 on p. 95, states that " he has very decided notions as 

 to arrangement of the various colours for summer 

 beddinof, which are that the whole shall be so com- 

 mingled that one would be puzzled to determine 

 what tint predominates in the entire arrangement." 

 He would have a " alaucour, " colour, that is, a 



