72 THE LITTLE GARDEN 



following the outline of the bed. Next the low hedge, sweet alys- 

 sum, Little Gem, Ageratum Stella Gumee, dwarf pale-yellow 

 antirrhinum, or snapdragon, and in the centre a short line of 

 white geranium, Mme. Recamier. The smaller beds next the 

 house were then arranged: lines of pale-yellow dwarf snapdragon 

 nearest the bordering hedges, the centres masses of the paJe-pink 

 geranium, Berthe de Presilly. It is true that this is actual "bed- 

 ding out"; but where space is very small and color wanted con- 

 stantly, a formal idea is the one to call into use. In the case of the 

 snapdragon, here there was a gardener who understood replacing 

 those about to end their bloom by others, that the bands of pale 

 .yellow, needed as a soft contrast to the pinks, lavenders, and 

 ^whites, might never be lacking. 



-A garden in Massachusetts lately brought to my attention is 

 "well worth describing in these pages, for the great variety and 

 gayety of its contents, as well as for the devotion and skill of its 

 mistress. This is a formal garden of forty-five by thirty-five feet. 

 The central featiu-e is a bird-bath, around which are planted 

 white 7m siberica, and then purple ones in ordered circles, with 

 cannas to follow, which, if the cannas were of pale yell6w or pale 

 pink, and not tall enough to hide the bird-bath, must have been 

 very good. The bird-bath, with its encircling flowers, is on the 

 axis of a waJk two feet wide, which rims straight through the 

 garden. 



Bounding the whole garden are borders three feet in width, 

 and separated from the central part by another walk; and be- 

 tween these and the circle in the centre (around which, by the 

 way, the main walk divides) are beds sohdly planted with flow- 

 ers, theu: inner lines following the curves of the central feature. 

 Midway between the circle and the rectangular walk facing the 

 outer borders, at each end of the garden lengthwise, the central 



