208 THE FLOWER-GARDEN. [CHAP. Vin. 



so as to form an ornamental botanic garden 

 during the whole of the flowering season ; and 

 the flower-garden would thus become not merely 

 a source of elegant amusement, but also ac- 

 tually of scientific knowledge, without any ap- 

 pearance of formal arrangement. 



When the flower-garden is to be a wome- 

 trical one, the best way of designing it is to 

 draw a figure on paper consisting of angular, 

 circular, or serpentine forms, to represent beds, 

 and arranging them so as to form a whole. 

 This may appear easy at first, but to do it well 

 requires a great deal of both taste and inge- 

 nuity; as each form should not only harmonise 

 well with the others, but be handsome in itself. 

 Where the space to be laid out is small, the 

 figure may be more complex, and the separate 

 beds more grotesque in their shapes, than when 

 the garden is large : but, where a large space 

 is devoted to flowers, only simply-formed beds 

 should be adopted. The reason for this is, 

 that when the beds are of bizarre shapes, they 

 require to be seen at one coup-dceil to have a 

 good effect ; whereas simple and uniform shapes 

 may be seen either together or alone, without 

 producing any disagreeable impression on the 

 mind. Thus, in large flower-gardens, a suc- 

 cession of circles or ovals at regular distances, 

 so as to form continually changing vistas to 

 the spectator who walks through them, will 

 have a much better effect than any geometric 

 figure, the parts composing which appear ridi- 

 culous when disjointed. Whatever figures may 

 be adopted, as soon as they have been sketched 

 on paper, each bed should be coloured; to try 



