Practical Considerations 167 



that is oblique to the basement of the house, on either of its 

 chief fronts; diagonal lines of walk on lawns, or walks crossing 

 or starting from other straight walks at any but a right angle; ' 

 plants trimmed into formal or grotesque figures, unless it be 

 the heads of standards, plants with naturally appropriate 

 habits, or confined in tubs, being preferable; gravel walks, 

 in flower gardens, that are inaccessible; monograms, or very 

 intricate patterns, in which the beds are too small to admit 

 flowers, for parterres; and the employment of pavements, 

 gravels, or sands, of different colors, in the place of flowers, 

 or merely for producing variety or contrast. 



Among the most characteristic details of architectural gar- 

 dening prominence should be given to terraces; broad, flat, 

 and conspicuous walks; extreme smoothness and polish; 

 changes of level effected by formal banks or walls; raised 

 beds and sunken panels; avenues, vistas, rows of flower beds; 

 walks and vistas terminating with some proper object, as a 

 temple, obelisk, pillar, etc.; rectangular forms, or those in 

 which various segments of a circle are combined; with a 

 sunk fence and parapet wall as boundaries to a garden. 



There are likewise many desirable accessories, of which a 

 few may be noted. These are as follows: a sufficient breadth 

 of open lawn between the house and the park; a detached 

 flower garden, with accompanying plant houses, or walls for 

 ornamental climbers, and the opportunity of looking down 

 upon this garden from a raised terrace; a rose garden, in a 

 retired spot, with attendant rose house or houses for delicate 

 sorts; a winter garden, to be filled exclusively with ever- 

 greens, the beds arranged in pattern, with a due admixture of 

 specimens, and all the plants selected with reference to their 

 habits and the color of their foliage in winter; a garden for 

 bulbs, florists' flowers, etc., in some spot which need not be 

 made accessible during the winter; standard or fastigiate 



