BEDDING PLANTS. 219 



grass of the lawn represented by the dwarf, close-set alter- 

 nantheras, the shrubs by the coleuses and geraniums, and 

 the trees by the larger forms of the acalyphas. 



The relations of these parts are, it will be seen, unlike 

 those of the different features of the lawn, but they are 

 carefully studied, so as to bring them into artistic and 

 effective relations with each other and with the gleaming 

 water and the floating pond-lilies. The higher parts of the 

 bed are not so high as to obscure the effect of the water- 

 plants, and the lower parts have a sufficient expanse in 

 places to afford the eye, although in miniature, a little of 

 the pleasure of grass spaces. The eye is attracted from 

 afar by the jewel-like effect of brilliant color, and yet when 

 the fountain is reached all parts are so nicely adjusted to 

 each other that the gaze, dwelling for a moment with de- 

 light on the bedding, passes at once to the superior charms 

 of the water-lilies and fountain spray. When we compare 

 such a fairly adjusted and artistic arrangement of bedding 

 as that around the Union Square fountain with the ordinary 

 coleus bed found in many front-door yards, we begin to see 

 why bedding is sometimes severely condemned. 



I think the main difficulty with most bedding is that 

 the designer frequently fails to recognize the value of proper 

 emphasis of parts in arranging his flower and foliage beds. 

 He uses cannas alone or he uses coleuses and geraniums 

 alone. Out in the grass he sets a strange and intricate 

 design of rosette-like echeverias and calls it a carpet-bed or 

 rug, and thinks he is artistic. The plants are attractive 

 individually, and the arrangement perhaps curious and in- 

 teresting, but it is out of place, out of key, and improperly 



