HORTICULTURE AND DESIGN IN HOUSE SURROUNDINGS. 121 



naked in naked enclosures. The contrast between a handsome 

 building and bare surroundings is sufficiently obvious in summer, 

 but in winter, in this New England climate, it becomes positively 

 startling, so that it is difficult to understand how educated people 

 can fail to be impressed by it, and how they can longer refuse to 

 comprehend that the house and the house-ground should be treated 

 in the same spirit. 



From another point of view this miserable nakedness is equally 

 surprising. Here in the suburbs is an opportunity for adding to 

 all the usual advantages and ornaments of city life the new and 

 delightful pleasantness of verdure, fragrance, and bloom. As a 

 matter of fact it is an appreciation of this opportunity that causes 

 the first plantings in most suburban grounds. Trees and shrubs, 

 selected for their profuse flowering or their striking habit, are set 

 out here and there, and brilliant beds of flowers are perhaps added. 

 Desire for ornament of this sort, like some other desires, grows 

 b}- what it feeds on and causes the pressing demand upon the 

 nurseryman for plants of marked appearance of which I spoke 

 before. The effect upon house-grounds resulting from planting 

 undertaken in this spirit is everywhere to be seen, and is generally 

 unfortunate. Specimens of many sorts planted promiscuously on 

 a lawn compose an interesting though ill-arranged museum, but 

 not an appropriate setting for a house. They wholly destroy all 

 that breadth of effect, which it is so difficult but so important to 

 preserve in small grounds ; if thej' grow large they interfere with 

 the prospect and the aspect of the house, and whatever their size, 

 they give the scene the appearance of having been adorned to make 

 a show, and remind one of the saying of the Greek sculptor, who 

 charged his pupil with having richly ornamented a statue, because 

 he knew not how to make it beautiful. 



An ambition to possess a collection of handsome, curious, and 

 rare plants, like the similar passions for shells or minerals or pre- 

 cious stones, is entirely praiseworthy and honorable, and may well 

 be indulged a/1 libitum, provided a place can be set apart and fit- 

 tingly arranged for the purpose, as cabinets are prepared in-doors 

 for collections of curios of all sorts. Out of doors, a flower garden 

 is such a cabinet, and there is no reason that tree and shrub gardens- 

 should not be similarly arranged by those who desire to grow 

 many striking sorts. In formal and highly decorated pleasure 

 grounds specimen trees are already used in this way and with good 



