98 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



adapted, there is hardly a prettier device. Heliotropes, 

 mignonette, violets, and aromatic plants generally, wliich are 

 really wanted for their perfume, and are nothing to look at, 

 should be always placed in the nooks and corners. They form 

 no feature in flower-beds, and the perfume is quite as pleasant 

 when they are not seen as when they are. 



Flower Beds on Lawns. — There may, however, be great 

 liberties taken with isolated beds cut on lawns ; it is only 

 when they form part of a figure that we are bound under any 

 circumstance to preserve that figure, and more particularly if 

 it be at all dependent on angles or intricate windings. Many 

 consider the figui-es cut in grass to be superior in effect to 

 those formed with gravel paths and box : we do not. Grass 

 is such a finish in itself when well kept, that we would not 

 consent for a moment to impair the expense of the centre by 

 cutting up any part of it for flowers. If there needs must be 

 flowers on grass, let the beds be at the side parallel ^viih. the 

 main path ; let there be a verge of green a foot wide ; the 

 bed cut close up to that, and whatever diversity of figure 

 may be required, let it be inside. Vary the figure as much as 

 you please inwardly, so that it reach a mere verge of grass 

 next the path ; but to cut a lawn into holes, beds, clumps, or 

 whatever else you may call them, is to destroy the beautiful 

 expanse wliich is the very charm of a lawn. ^N'evertheless, it 

 is the whim and fancy of some to cut even geometrical figures 

 in grass, and although we have an insuperable objection, 

 there are some points to attend to where it must be done, to 

 make it even tolerable. For instance, as the flower-beds are 

 useless unless they are attractive, \isitors always frequent 

 their vicinity, and if there be not ample room, the grass is 

 soon destroyed by merely walking over the same spot re- 

 peatedly. On this account the beds must always be smaller 

 in proportion than they are on gravel, where a path may be 

 trampled on from morning till night, any day in the yea,r, 

 without damage ; but if the grass be ever so expansive in 

 proportion to the beds, it is soon damaged if there be many 

 visitors. This is our grand objection; for when grass is 

 worn a little it cannot be brought up again without pro- 

 hibiting a footstep altogether, or laying down fresh turf, and 

 either of these done at the very season a place is most 

 frequented, is a serious objection. 



It is not uncommon to see figures cut in the grass on both 



