64 FLOWER GARDENING 



the inevitable exceptions that make the rule. There 

 are instances, as in Hyde Park, London, of beds in 

 the simplest geometrical forms being placed in the 

 lawn near the edge of it with an effect really 

 beautiful and not out of keeping with the general 

 scheme; but all this is on a large scale. Again, 

 islands of shrubbery, that are virtually converted 

 into flower beds by a liberal planting of perennials 

 or bedding plants, are to be seen. 



For the small home grounds, above all, the bor- 

 der, or series of borders, is infinitely to be preferred 

 in any but very exceptional circumstances. Borders 

 adjust themselves to every line of a place, no matter 

 with what irregularity it is marked; beds rarely 

 do. 



Then, too, borders are very much easier in the 

 making, while in the upkeep the labor does not 

 begin to be so much as with a bed that offers any- 

 thing more serious than a right angle. The 

 thought of laboriously cutting a crescent in the 

 lawn, and then planting it, trimming it again and 

 again and keeping the grass edge just right, that 

 always there may be exact symmetry, is enough to 

 drive such an idea out of one's head. 



A border is technically a narrow flower bed 

 that is to say, one that is narrow in proportion to its 

 width. Less precisely, but within proper usage, it 

 is any bordering bed. Though usually much 

 elongated, it would not be out of place to call a 

 large square bed a border if it had a path on one 

 or two sides of it. The simplest and commonest 



