220 LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



terial that this fact must be accountable for the nu- 

 merous gardens. Notwithstanding these draw- 

 backs, they are so beautiful as to be inspiring and 

 satisfactory though it may rain perpetually. The 

 out-door room feature is always there, to be sure, 

 and can be viewed from within, when it is impossi- 

 ble for one to be out of doors with any degree of 

 comfort. 



Garden design is probably one of the oldest 

 forms of work in landscape gardening, and in its 

 most formal aspect was very highly developed by 

 the ancient Romans. It is known that the Greeks 

 were the first to use bulbs in planting, and the 

 Egyptian gardens, particularly those of Thebes, 

 were famous. The younger Pliny in his writings 

 described gardens with clipped box hedges and 

 parterres cut into shapes of animals, displaying 

 many of the fancies which many centuries later 

 ran riot over Europe in topiary work. 



The Roman garden was necessarily formal, be- 

 cause it generally occurred within the house itself 

 (Fig. 1) as a central court laid out as a garden. 

 This necessitated a rather rigid and architectural, 

 though highly decorative, treatment of the plants 

 used, and in Pliny's time the formal garden had 

 attained a high degree of excellence. 



