FLOWER ENCLOSURES AND BORDERS 107 



elaboration and to introduce more fanciful features. 

 The top of the wall or hedge can be adorned with 

 pinnacles or cut into grotesque figures, or again 

 can be shaped along its whole length in a series of 

 curves, indentations, or pierced openings. Central 

 features or special treatments for the angles of the 

 garden will occur to the designer, and nothing will 

 be superfluous that adds to the sense of rarity and 

 richness that should pervade the almost sacred 

 enclosure. 



Once the formal treatment of flower beds is 

 appreciated it will be found to be the simplest and 

 most efi^ective method of display, and its application 

 to every part of the garden will present no difficulty. 

 Waste space in a garden should be an unknown 

 quantity, and as long as there is sunlight and air 

 the most irregular figure will yield to the formal 

 treatment and provide a home for flowers. We 

 must, of course, avoid, from practical considerations, 

 too great a proximity between our flower beds and 

 the trunks and roots of trees. Yet we shall do 

 well to remember the immense value of forest tree 

 and thick shrub, which by their association with the 

 boundaries of the enclosed gardens give them a new 



