242 HOW TO PLAN THE HOME GROUNDS 



and shrubs, properly arranged with regard to a park-like 

 eifect. There might be bits of color introduced by the 

 use of bedding, but the dominant and permanent idea 

 would be arboreal, and fitted for enjoyment all the year 

 round. It is a little strange that a wider view of the 

 subject has not been more generally entertained, and 

 designs worked out for stations that will include all the 

 possible beauties of the park and lawn, whether trees and 

 shrubs, evergreen and deciduous, or herbaceous, and bed- 

 ding-plants. Plant for plant, it will be found that the 

 average cost of these different kinds of material does not 

 seriously differ ; that is, many of the best shrubs and 

 trees can be bought as cheaply as cannas and geraniums, 

 and the trees and shrubs need no replacing year after 

 year, as the cannas and geraniums do. This would evi- 

 dently reduce the cost of the maintenance of station 

 grounds greatly, as compared with the expense of an ex- 

 clusive system, carried out yearly, of decoration with 

 only bedding-plants. 



It seems to the author that an important reason why 

 we do not find better systems established everywhere in 

 the improvement of station grounds is because there is 

 generally a lack of method in formulating the designs 

 that are to be used. If a station is to be built, an 

 architect always prepares a plan for it, but in the case 

 of the grounds, this is usually done by any one, and 

 consequently a haphazard and more or less inharmonious 

 result is pretty sure to follow. 



It is certain that if a plan of walks, roads, turns for 

 carriages, and open bits of lawn, with plantations of trees, 

 shrubs, and flowers, were always prepared beforehand, 

 greater beauty of park-like effect would result, and dur- 

 ing a considerable period of years, on account of the 



