168 GARDEN-CRAFT. 



Both for practical and artistic reasons, the beds 

 should not be too small; they should not be so small 

 that, when filled with plants, they should appear like 

 spots of colour, nor be so large that any part of 

 them cannot be easily reached by a rake. Nor 

 should the shapes of the beds be too angular to 

 accommodate the plants well. In Sir Gardner 

 Wilkinson's book on " Colour" (Murray, 1858, 

 p. 372), he speaks of design and good form as the 

 very soul of a dressed garden ; and the very perma- 

 nence of the forms, which remain though successive 

 series of plants be removed, calls for a good design. 

 The shapes of the beds, as well as the colours of 

 their contents, are taken cognisance of in estimating 

 the general effect of a geometrical garden. This 

 same accomplished author advises that there should 

 always be a less formal garden beyond the geometri- 

 cal one ; the latter is, so to speak, an appurtenance 

 of the house, a feature of the plateau upon which it 

 stands, and no attempt should be made to combine 

 the patterns of the geometrical with the beds or 

 borders of the outer informal garden, such combina- 

 tion being specially ill-judged in the neighbourhood 

 of bushes and winding paths. 



Of the proper selection of flowers and the deter- 

 mination of the colours for harmonious combination 

 in the geometrical beds, much that is contradictory 

 has been preached, one gardener leaning to more 

 formality than another. There is, however, a general 

 agreement upon the necessity of having beds that 

 will look fairly well at all seasons of the year, and 



