and planting a Flo\soey-Garden. 453 



Planted with flowers, however, the entire shape of every bed 

 would be seen at once; and then the question which would 

 arise in the mind of the spectator would be, Why were such 

 anomalous forms adopted for these beds, and why are some of 

 them so very grotesque ? Our Young Gardener will perhaps 

 answer, that he varied the beds as much as he could, in order 

 to produce as much variety as possible ; or he might say that 

 he preferred having a grotesque character throughout. He 

 might also say that he intended many of the beds to be filled 

 with low flowering shrubs, such as azaleas, rhododendrons, &c., 

 and this to be done in such a way as to break the area into 

 diiferent scenes, and prevent the whole of it from being seen at 

 once from any one point of view. In either of these cases we 

 should say that the Young Gardener has attained the end that he 

 had in view, and so far, therefore, he is entitled to approbation. 



The next point that we shall consider is, the taste of the 

 Young Gardener in selecting either of these ends ; and here we 

 feel inclined to differ from him. The beds, though they exhibit 

 a similarity of character throughout, do not unite in forming a 

 whole, because a whole must be composed of principal and 

 secondary parts, and these beds are all pretty nearly of the 

 same size. On looking at the plan, there appears such a same- 

 ness in form and character, and such seeming equidistance in 

 the position of the beds, that the actual result is a kind of 

 monotony. 



There are two ways of avoiding this monotony when a space 

 is to be covered with irregular figures at regular distances : the 

 first is, to have all the figures of the same character of form, 

 but to have them much larger in one place than in another, as 

 in Jig. 66. ; and the second is, to have all the beds or figures of 

 the same character as to size, but to have one kind of figure 

 prevailing in one place, and another in another place, as in 

 Jig. 67. It will be allowed, we think, that there is a greater 

 expression of order in the two last figures than in ^g. 65., and 

 that either of them forms a better whole than it does. 



It must always be recollected that the beds are but the means, 

 and that the flowers or shrubs which grow in them are the end. 

 Whatever, therefore, seems to exalt the means above the end, 

 must be in bad taste ; whenever the forms of the beds of a 

 flower-garden make a stronger impression on the spectator than 

 the flowers which are growing in them, whether the forms are 

 elegant in themselves or otherwise, the spectator may rely on it 

 that there is something wrong either in his taste, or in the taste 

 or in the culture of the flower-garden. Of course we are not 

 speaking of a flower-garden in winter, when there are no flowers 

 or herbaceous plants to attract attention from the form of the 

 beds ; nor of those parterres of embroidery, as they are called. 



