THE GAKDEN PATH AND BOEDER 5 



those of the present daj, carefully trimmed, but 

 scraggly and unkempt, preserved for sentiment's 

 sake. They still line the central walk, much as they 

 did long years ago. In those days there was no 

 laying-out of gardens or creating odd designs, but, 

 instead, there was a simple, narrow, dividing line, 

 worked out by the removal of turf and filling in 

 with earth. 



Few realize that garden culture can be divided 

 into periods, each one of which is well defined, so 

 that it is possible to determine where the old-fash- 

 ioned ideas left off and the new-fashioned ones be- 

 gan. The earliest period has a straight, simple 

 path, about six feet in width. These gardens came 

 into existence when our shipping was greater on 

 the sea and the merchant princes demanded large 

 and more elegant houses with gardens laid out in 

 the rear. Many of these were planned by the mis- 

 tresses of the stately homes, while some were de- 

 signed by English or German gardeners, who in 

 their planting reproduced the gardens across the 

 seas. There are a few only that deviate from the 

 general plan of the single walk dividing the beds 

 and ending in a summer house, vine-clad, where 

 the Colonial dames during the summer months held 



