3({ GARDENING FOR PLEASURE. 



might easily be mistaken for carpets laid out to air on 

 the green lawn. In fact, a story is told of a thrifty 

 old Jersey farmer and his wife, who had never seen 

 these living carpets before, and who, happening to be 

 driving in the grounds one day when a shower came 

 up, drove up to Mr. Hoey's residence and told the ser- 

 vants to get in the carpets, as they were getting ruined 

 by the rain ! The example set by Mr. Hoey in clothing 

 his grounds in this gorgeous coloring, where it is seen by 

 tens of thousands annually, has had more to do with ex- 

 tending the taste for the, lawn decoration of flower beds 

 than perhaps all othe^sources combined. The car- 

 pet style, so called, consists in using plants that can be 

 kept down to a few inches above the level of the lawn. 

 A great variety of succulent plants are used, such as 

 Echeverias, Sedums, Mesembryanthemums, etc. , together 

 with numerous low-growing Alpine plants, such as 

 Ajugas, Cerastiums, Lysimachias, Lobelias, Ivies, Alter- 

 nantheras, etc., etc. This style of bedding requires an im- 

 mense number of plants. One bed in the carpet style at 

 Battersea Park, London, containing less than 1,000 square 

 feet, required 4,000 plants to produce the desired effect 

 in the design, and not a leaf of these was more than six 

 inches above the lawn. Planting in this style admits of 

 unlimited variety in the form of the beds and contrasts 

 of colors. So great is the care exercised abroad in arrang- 

 ing the designs that colored papers, giving the exact tints 

 of the leading flowers and colored foliage, are supplied 

 by the dealers, in order that colored designs may be made 

 and studied before putting them into execution ; for a 

 single misplaced color may spoil the effect of the whole. 

 In works of this kind the parts of the design should be 

 separated by well-defined portions of turf, as the color of 

 each member of it is brought out more clearly and dis- 

 tinctly, and the whole has a much better effect if a liberal 

 amount of green is introduced. Figure 10 is introduced 



