94 Hints on Landscape Gardening 



should take an hour to walk round it. Open, 

 grassy banks, single high trees, woods, and thick- 

 ets should vary the effect with broad spots where 

 the sunlight can have full entry, in order not to 

 deprive the water of its transparency and bril- 

 liancy by concealment. A lake whose shores are 

 entirely in shadow loses much of its effective- 

 ness, as the water reveals all its magic only under 

 the full rays of the sun, where the reflections 

 from above appear to come from the bottom in 

 transparent, silvery clearness. I have frequently 

 seen this very necessary rule quite ignored by 

 unskillful gardeners. The projecting tongues of 

 land must, for the greater part, run into pointed, 

 not rounded ends, for I cannot sufficiently dwell 

 on the fact that no line in picturesque landscape 

 is more unpropitious than that taken from the 

 circle, especially in any great extent of space. A 

 tongue of land which ends quite in a point, and 

 is at its termination almost in the same line as 

 the water, and beyond which the water appears 

 on the other side, makes quite a charming variety, 

 especially when a few high-branched trees stand 

 on it, and where one looks through under the 

 foliage. If any important object stands near,— 

 a building, hill, or conspicuous tree, — plenty 

 of room should be given for its reflection in the 

 water, and attention should be drawn to the pic- 

 ture shimmering in its depths by a path or bench 

 placed there for the purpose. 



Water plants, reeds, etc., the various species 

 of irises, and other free-blooming water plants 



