PLANTATIONS 91 



bordering herbaceous plants, alternantheras and pyre- 

 thrums, and the whole will then become an aggregation 

 of harmoniously and picturesquely designed parts. 



With such planting material and intelligent designing 

 ability, endless beautiful combinations may be worked 

 out, on lines as bold and free in their way as those used 

 in the large shrub group, and sky lines as sweeping and 

 noble, and arrangements of colors as soft, delicate, and 

 harmonious. All strictly flat treatment of such foliage 

 beds, in imitation of rugs and other purely formal and 

 artificial designs, have an element of the meretricious 

 and vulgar about them, which, however brilliant and intri- 

 cate the pattern, will be likely to strike a note in the 

 general scheme of harmony that will not be pleasing to 

 many who, perhaps, may not exactly know the reason 

 why. 



It is certainly not necessary to say that flowers add 

 greatly to the beauty and pleasing effect of foliage beds, 

 but if used in too large quantities, they will mar in the 

 first part of the season by the insignificant appearance 

 of their leaves, and later on by the overshadowing and 

 varied mass of their individual bloom, just as the illus- 

 tration may be seen any year in some foliage bed where 

 a predominant grouping of white lilies is often so widely 

 spread throughout the mass as to largely destroy the 

 intended effect of the design. 



The desire of many in regard to the distance at which 

 trees and shrubs should be set apart is turned a great 

 deal in the direction of securing immediate effect. It 

 may be that one is justified in undertaking to plant for 

 immediate effect, provided he has entirely counted the 

 cost and expects to thin out, after a few years, many 

 trees and shrubs annually. In actual practice, however, 



