FRENCH GARDENS : i6th AND EARLY 17TH CENTURIES. 85- 



terres and recommends a greater use of circles and curves to give variety to 

 the plan ; he further recommends the designer to take care that all the walks 

 communicate with one another so that it is unnecessary to return by the 

 same route by which one came. He says that alleys are necessary to 

 gardens, as much to serve for promenades as for the growth of those plants 

 that are usually cultivated in them. The width of avenues should be pro- 

 portionate to their length ; if they exceed a length of three or four hundred 

 toises they should be from 7 to 8 toises in width.^ In preference, oaks, elms 

 and limes were to be used, planted in two or more rows ; if walnuts or 

 chestnuts, one row would sufHce. As the alleys approach to the centre of 

 the garden they should diminish in width. Parterres, he says, give grace 

 to a garden, especially when placed that they may be seen from an eleva- 

 tion ; they should be composed of various coloured shrubs and low 

 growing plants fashioned into all manner of compartments, the variations 

 of their designs being produced by flowers, grass and coloured sands. He 

 gives a very large number of designs for parterres, including those he laid 

 out at the Louvre, the Tuileries, St. Germain-en-Laye and Versailles. 



^ The toise may be reckoned as 6"395 feet. 



