EMBELLISHMENTS. 377 



Lobelias, Scarlet Geraniums, etc., etc.* This mode can 

 be adopted here where a small green-house or frame is 

 kept. In the absence of these, nearly the same effect may 

 be produced by choosing the most showy herbaceous plants, 

 perennial and biennial, alternating them with hardy bulbs, 

 and the finer species of annuals. 



In Fig. 72, we give an example of a small cottage or 

 villa residence of one or two acres, where the flower-beds 

 are disposed around the lawn in the English style : their 

 forms irregular, with curved outlines, affording a great 

 degree of variety in the appearance as viewed from differ- 

 ent points on the lawn itself. In this, the central portion 

 is occupied by the lawn ; c, d, are the flower-beds, planted 

 with showy border-flowers, in separate masses ; b, the 

 conservatory. Surrounding the whole is a collection of 

 choice shrubs and trees, the lowest near the walk, and those 

 behind increasing in altitude as they approach the boundary 

 wall or fence. In this plan, as there is supposed to be no 

 exterior view worth preserving, the amphitheatre of shrubs 

 and trees completely shuts out all objects but the lawn and 

 its decorations, which are rendered as elegant as possible. 



Where the proprietor of a country residence, or the 

 ladies of a family, have a particular taste, it may be indulged 

 at pleasure in other and different varieties of the flower- 

 garden. With some families there is a taste for botany, 



* In many English residences, the flower-garden is maintained in never- 

 fading brilliancy by almost daily supplies from what is termed the reserve 

 garden. This is a small garden out of sight, in which a great number of 

 duplicates of the species in the flower-garden are grown in pots plunged in 

 beds. As soon as a vacuum is made in the flower-garden by the fading of any 

 flowers, the same are immediately removed and their places supplied by fresh 

 plants just ready to bloom, from the pots in the reserve garden. This, which is 

 the ultimatum of refinement in flower-gardening, has never, to our knowledge, 

 been attempted in this country. 



