374 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



ground scenery, is an appendage to the house, seen in the 

 same view or moment with it, and therefore should exhibit 

 something of the regularity which characterizes, n a 

 greater or less degree, all architectural compositions ; and 

 when a given scene is so small as to be embraced in a 

 single glance of the eye, regular forms are found to be 

 more satisfactory than irregular ones, which, on so small a 

 scale, are apt to appear unmeaning. 



The French flower-garden is the most fanciful of the 

 regular modes of laying out the area devoted to this purpose. 

 The patterns or figures employed are often highly intricate, 

 and require considerable skill in their formation. The 

 walks are either of gravel or smoothly shaven turf, and the 

 beds are filled with choice flowering plants. It is evident 

 that much of the beauty of this kind of flower-garden, or 

 indeed any other where the figures are regular and intri- 

 cate, must depend on the outlines of the beds, or parterres 

 of embroidery, as they are called, being kept distinct and 

 clear. To do this effectually, low growing herbaceous 

 plants or border flowers, perennials and annuals, should be 

 chosen, such as will not exceed on an average, one or two 

 feet in height. 



In the English flower-garden, the beds are either in 

 symmetrical forms and figures, or they are characterized 

 by irregular curved outlines. The peculiarity of these 

 gardens, at present so fashionable in England, is, that each 

 separate bed is planted with a single variety, or at most 

 two varieties of flowers. Only the most striking and 

 showy varieties are generally chosen, and the effect, when 

 the selection is judicious, is highly brilliant. Each bed, in 

 its season, presents a mass of blossoms, and the contrast of 

 nch colors is much more striking than in any other 



