132 THE FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND vi 



Tuileries, Fontainebleau, and St. Germaiii-en- 

 Laye. Seven engravings of these are given in 

 Olivier de Serres's Theatre d' Agriculture et 

 rnesnage des Champs^ 1603. These were planted 

 with flowers and grass edgings, and laid with 

 coloured earths. The parterre was developed 

 by Le Notre, and by the end of the seventeenth 

 century a systematic classification was arrived 

 at, which divided parterres into four main 

 heads. ^ In James's translation of The Theory 

 and Practice of Gardening they are given as 

 follows : — " Parterres of embroidery, parterres 

 of compartiment, parterres after the English 

 manner, and parterres of cut-work. There are 

 also parterres of water, but at present they are 

 quite out of use." 



1. Parterres de hroderie were designs similar 

 to embroidered work, planted with edgings ot 

 box and filled up with different coloured earths, 

 such as black earth composed of iron filings, or 

 the scales beaten off the anvils, or powdered red 

 tiles, or charcoal, or yellow sand. The foHage 

 of the design was called " branchings," the 

 flowers *' flourishings." 



2. Parterres of compartiment are the same 

 as the last, except that the design, instead of 

 being single, is repeated both at the ends and 

 the sides — that is to say, one quarter of the 



^ The term parterre was used generally to signify one specific plot or 

 compartment of a garden, which formed a single design complete in 

 itself. 



