Strictures on disposing Plants in Masses. 263 



has not the slightest pretension to ornament ; the object of these 

 designs being merely to show the arrangement of the rooms, 

 and the connection of the walls with those of the garden, in 

 such a manner as that any country mason or bricklayer might 

 build from them. 



Art. IV. Strictures on disposing Plants in Masses. 

 By Calycanthus. 



The system of disposing plants in masses, so frequently and 

 ably advocated in this Magazine, is becoming very general, and 

 certainly produces a much better effect than the tedious mono- 

 tony of an indiscriminate mixture. In the practice, however, of 

 this superior method, it should be remembered that the groups 

 and masses ought to be considered as parts of a whole, and, as 

 such, should harmonise and unite with each other, with regard 

 to form and colour. Without attention to this point, the 

 several disunited and independent parts will no more form a 

 gardenesque landscape, than the colours arranged on a painter's 

 palette will of themselves form a picture. I have known more 

 than one small garden spoiled by a disregard of proportion, the 

 shrubs and flowers being disposed in groups of far too large a 

 size. In sitch a situation, a single plant, or a group of two or 

 three, must be considered to bear the same proportion to the 

 whole, as much larger masses or groups bear in the case of a 

 park. Although I approve, as I have said above, of the prin- 

 ciple of placing different species in groups and masses, I think 

 that there are cases in which this, like all other principles, may 

 be carried too far. In a small flower-garden which I very much 

 admire, I have seen a group, composed of myrtles and China 

 roses, planted alternately in quincunx order, the larger plants 

 being in the centre ; and, in my opinion, a better effect was pro- 

 duced than if the two species had been in separate masses: the 

 rich green colour of the myrtles' leaves, forming a ground to the 

 beautiful white of the flower ; the light and elegant foliage and 

 pendent bloom of the rose ; the mingled colour, and the asso- 

 ciations connected with both, made an impression upon me 

 which I shall not easily forget. In the same garden there is a 

 group consisting of an acacia, a sumach, and a laburnum. The 

 light feathery elegance of the acacia, the broader and more 

 shadowy plumes of the sumach, and the pendulous clusters of 

 flowers of the laburnum, compose a little picture of the most 

 highly finished character. 



Gardeners might find much instruction from an examination 

 of cottage gardens, in many of which I have seen a degree of 

 good taste that is not always found where there is more reason 



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