KMBELLTSHj\mNT OF SHRUBBERY BORDERS. 113 



liil] copse, or as the box bushes sometimes do on a Sussex 

 down. Here care, variety in selection, taste and skill in 

 grouping, so as to allow different subjects, whether placed 

 singly or in groups, or little groves, being in a position where 

 tliey may grow well and be seen to advantage, would lead 

 to the most charming results in the open-air garden. With 

 sufficient preparation at first, such shrubberies would be the 

 cause of very little trouble afterwards. 



Now, such beauty could be obtained without any further 

 aid from other plants ; and in many cases it might be desir- 

 able to consider the trees and shrubs and their effect only, 

 and let the turf spread in among them; but we have the 

 ])rivilege of adding to this beautiful tree and shrub life 

 another world of l)eauty — the bulbs and herbaceous plants, 

 and innumerable beautiful things which go to form the 

 ground flora, so to say, of northern and temperate countries, 

 and which light up the world with loveliness in meadow 

 or copse, or wood or alpine pasture in the flowering season. 

 The surface which is dug and wasted in all our parks, and 

 in numljers of our gardens, should be occupied Avitli this 

 varied life ; not in the miserable old mixed border fashion, 

 with eacli plant stuck up with a stick, but with the plants in 

 groups and colonies between the shrubs. In the spaces where 

 turf would not thrive, or where it might be troublesome to 

 keep fresh, we should have irises, or narcissi, or lupines, or 

 French willows, or Japan anemones, or any of scores of other 

 lovely things which people cannot now find a place for in our 

 stiff' gardens. The soil which now does little work, and in 

 whicli the tree-roots every year are mercilessly dug up, 

 would support myriads of lovely plants. The necessity of 



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