106 On grouping and arranging Plants 



but from a distance is tame and dull : plant Clarkias, scarlet 

 verbena, or purple petunia along with it, and it becomes 

 elegant as well as sweet : some must be planted singly to be 

 viewed with advantage. It must be undoubtedly acknow- 

 ledged, that this is the best system where the flower borders 

 have a walk only on one side, or wanted as a boundary be- 

 tween certain parts of the garden. It is almost needless to 

 state that the larger plants should be placed behind the 

 smaller ones, as every person of the least thought would 

 naturally adopt without advice. When different plants are 

 variously disposed in neat and regulated order in such bor- 

 ders, they form, like the flowers in a tastefully arranged 

 bouquet, a most beautiful appearance. 



The second method, and the one most worthy of general 

 imitation, is to plant only one kind of flower in each bed, so 

 as to produce masses of color, which will harmonize with the 

 masses in the other beds. It is almost unnecessary to say, 

 that, where the flower garden is laid out symmetrically, and of 

 any extent, that this system is by far the best for striking and 

 general effiect. It is also the most desirable method for plant- 

 ing the isolated clumps which decorate ornamental lawns. 

 All flower gardens, to have a good effect, are laid out sym- 

 metrically, that is to say, the beds are distributed, so that, 

 whether simply divided into squares, ovals, circles, parallelo- 

 grams, or figures of various shape, regularly formed, one part 

 corresponds with every other part, and each part is not sepa- 

 rable from the other without injuring the effect of the whole. 

 Great care must be taken not to plant the beds on one side 

 with plants of a different species or color from the beds which 

 occupy the corresponding side of the same figure ; for instance, 

 suppose the beds on one side of the centre to be planted with 

 scarlet verbena, blue verbena, purple petunia, or yellow 

 eschscholtzia ; then the corresponding beds on the other side 

 of the centre ought to be planted with the same plants, in 

 order to preserve the symmetry of arrangement. 



The prevailing colors of flowers are, white, pink, yellow, 

 orange, scarlet, red, blue, purple, and all their various shades 

 and mixtures, and those which ought to be brought together, 

 and which contrast the best, are, white with rose-colored 

 or pink ; dark blue with yellow ; light blue with orange ; 



