206 THE FLOWER-GARDEN. [CHAP. VIIL 



Laying out a Flower-Garden. — Very little 

 need be said of the aspect of the flower-garden, 

 as, in most cases, it depends on circumstances 

 quite beyond the control of the cultivator of 

 flowers : when, however, a situation can be 

 chosen, the best is one open to the south or 

 south-east, and sheltered on the north. It 

 must be observed, however, in all situations, 

 that flowers never do well under the shade of 

 trees. Where no ground can be spared for a 

 flower-garden but a spot surrounded by tall 

 trees, it is better to give up at once the idea of 

 crowing flowers in it in beds, and to ornament 

 it with rockwork, fountains, vases, statues, &'c, 

 interspersed with a few flowering trees and 

 shrubs, «o arranged, that, though their flowers, 

 if produced, would augment the beauty of the 

 scene, the want of them may not destroy it, if 

 they should fail. Flower-gardens are of two 

 kinds : those that are called natural, and which 

 are planted without any regard to regularity ; 

 and those that are called geometrical, and which 

 consist of beds forming some definite figure. 



The natural, or English style, as it is called 

 abroad, however beautiful it may be in plea- 

 sure-grounds, is very ill-adapted to a flower- 

 garden, which is essentially artificial. The 

 principal beauty of a flower-garden consists, 

 indeed, in the elegance with which it has been 

 arranged, and the neatness with which it is 

 kept; or, in other words, in the evidence it 

 affords of the art that has been employed in 

 forming it. This being the case, it is quite 

 clear that an artificial mode of arrangement is 

 more suitable to it than any other, as it is best 



