62O Ornamental Gardening. 



CHAPTER III. 

 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING. 



IT does not come within our province, nor within the limits of 

 this volume, to enter into details and directions respecting the 

 laying-out and construction of a garden. To treat landscape 

 and architectural gardening in an exhaustive and instructive 

 manner would alone fill a much larger book than the present, 

 and require a far more extensive knowledge of the subject than 

 we pretend to possess. Nevertheless, there are many questions 

 relating to the working arrangements of a garden, whether large 

 or small, which it will not be out of place to refer to here. 

 Alterations and would-be improvements of an original design 

 are frequently undertaken by young gardeners without any 

 fixed or preconceived idea of the object in view, or any notion 

 of the cardinal principles to be observed in carrying out these 

 operations. Too often features are introduced in this way, 

 wholly regardless of their suitability to surrounding objects and 

 conditions. A tree or a shrub, or a group of trees or shrubs, 

 is planted, a conservatory or rustic summer-house is built, 

 an aquarium, rockery, or terrace is formed, a geometrical par- 

 terre is devised, or a number of vases or groups of statuary are 

 set up, and probably great pains and expense bestowed upon 

 each separate work in ordei to produce an effective display ; 

 but all to little purpose, on account of the disregard of the 

 fundamental principle that each detail of a garden should be 

 subservient to and in harmony with a definite plan, forming a 

 complete picture or series of pictures. Gardening is a veritable 

 art, and one whose varied details are not mastered without 

 much application, power of thought, and natural taste. It is 

 an art, too, that may be as effectively practised in the cottage 

 garden or villa plot, as in the princely domain of hundreds or 

 thousands of acres in extent, The only difference should be in 

 size and corresponding magnificence ; none in regard to merit 

 as a design appropriate to the situation. 



