36 THE PARKS AND GARDENS OP PARIS. [Chap. II. 



such as the Yucca and variegated Arundo, groups of four or five 

 good plants should be used to form one. In addition to such 

 arrangements, two or three individuals of a species might be 

 placed here and there upon the grass with the best efiect. For 

 example, there is at present in our nurseries a great Japanese 

 Polygonum (P. Sieboldi), which has seldom yet been used with 



much effect in the garden. If 

 anybody will select some open 

 grassy spot in a pleasure-garden, 

 or grassy glade near a wood — some 

 spot considered unworthy of atten- 

 tion as regards ornamenting it — 

 and plant a group of three plants 

 of this Polygonum, leaving fifteen 

 feet or so between the stools, a dis- 



'"^::::<-.fi:t^':czT:lc::fz ^^^^^^ ^«p««t of vegetation wm be 



latifolius, Arundo Donnx variegata, thc rCSUlt. It is necdlcSS to mul- 

 etc, irregularly isolated on the grass. .. n -, .-i , . , -, 



tiply examples ; the plan is capable 

 of endless variation, and on that account alone should be welcome 

 to all lovers of gardens. 



But many will only see in it an interference with the mowing 

 machine or. the formal margin. The progress of improvement in 

 our gardens is much retarded by the habit of looking from 

 the housemaid's point of view at any suggested innovation. Very 

 often the question is not, " Is the alteration a desirable one ?" 

 but "How will it interfere with the progress of the garden 

 dusters?" If one suggests the very obvious improvement that 

 might be wrought by breaking up and arranging in a perfectly 

 easy, varied, and broken manner the margin of a mass of choice 

 shrubs — formal even to ugliness — the reply will probably be, " How 

 could we get the mowing machine to work ?" Need it be said that 

 gardens are not made for the mowing-machine, the broom, or the 

 edging-iron, but for the highest expression of the beauty of the 

 vegetable kingdom, and for the enjoyment and instruction of men 

 and women ? The gardener should be relieved of much of the 

 needless, fruitless drudgery that he now has to endure. The 

 whole course of his existence at present is a weary repetition of 

 the same endless routine. Not in one place out of twenty are the 

 gardener's labours devoted to the formation of features which take 



