4 FLOWERS AND THE FLOWER GAHDEN. 



opposite to it (so as to look before it from the windows of 

 the house), stood a fine round evergreen oak. Then came 

 thick bushy lilacs on the farther side of the path, and 

 under them, divided from them by the path, low laurels ; 

 then one Lornbardy poplar tapered up into the sky, and 

 farther on. flanked on each side by bushy laurels, was a 

 remarkably fine weeping ash ; a wide division in the 

 laurels before it laid it open in view of the windows, 

 and some little way beyond it again a larch rose tall and 

 graceful. Lilacs, syringas, snowberries, a birch, labur- 

 nums, lilacs, and another dense cluster of snowberries, 

 on the one side, and double furze, pink acacia, and more 

 laburnums, on the other, led on to the corner. After 

 these the path turned the corner and went on its course 

 between tall trees on the one hand, and low bushes on 

 the other, until it diverged to the side gate amid Cor chorus 

 and ivy on the one hand, and the flower garden on the 

 other. The outline of the shrubbery was varied and 

 pretty, and in that it deserves to be taken as a model. 

 A landscape garden, to be fully carried out, needs an 

 extensive piece of ground; but its principles may be 

 brought to bear on a rough bit, whatever be the size. 



Gardens in the Italian style also need sufficient space, 

 for if anything of this kind be attempted in a medium- 

 sized back garden there will be great danger of its de- 

 generating into a tea-garden-like assemblage of fountains, 

 parapets, and pedestals, or at any rate of incurring the 

 odium often bestowed on Cockney gardens. A varied 

 surface favours this kind, as it should have facilities for 

 being constructed with terraces, and raised positions for 

 temples, fountains, and such like ornaments. One of its 

 characteristics is stone, or stucco, as the case may be. 

 Terraces with parapets, flights of steps, balustrades, urns; 

 and vases ; fountains of every shape and make ; temples 

 and erections of all and every kind, viaducts, tunnels, 

 and all appliances of the kind that man ever invented to 

 put into a garden, appertain to it. An Italian garden 

 agrees well with a house of formal architecture, whence 

 it may be reached by steps descending from a terrace 

 stretching along the front. The flower beds in such 



