PLANTING 313 



colour scheme, and well describes the common 

 but ineffective method of arranging a mixed 

 bed or border, in which everything kills every- 

 thing else. 



It should be an axiom in garden practice 

 to contrast or harmonize colour in masses. 

 An instructive experiment tried some years 

 since, for determining the best method of 

 painting gun-carriages so as to render them 

 inconspicuous at a distance, consisted in using 

 red, blue, and yellow paint in spots, a kind of 

 stippling of the surface with the primary colours 

 in equal proportions. The result entirely real- 

 ized its originator's intentions. The coloured 

 spots were mutually destructive, and the 

 resultant tint a neutral gray. This is quite 

 in accordance with theory, and I mention it 

 here because it demonstrates how entirely 

 mistaken is the writer whose dictum I have 

 just quoted. 



Were I planting a bed with flowers of two 

 contrasting colours I should adopt the simple 

 plan of using a broad edging of one colour with 

 a central mass of the other. A bed of white 

 pinks, edged with mauve violas, or of purple blue 

 Canterbury bells, edged with yellow violas, or 



