620 Ornamental Gardening. 
CHAPTER III. 
ORNAMENTAL GARDENING. 
Ir does not come within our province, nor within the limits of 
this volume, to enter into details and directions respecting the 
laying-out and construction of a garden, To treat landscape 
and architectural gardening in an exhaustive and instructive 
manner would alone fill a much larger book than the present, 
and require a far more extensive knowledge of the subject than 
we pretend to possess. Nevertheless, there are many questions 
relating to the working arrangements of a garden, whether large 
or small, which it will not be out of place to refer to here. 
Alterations and would-be improvements of an original design 
are frequently undertaken by young gardeners without any 
fixed or preconceived idea of the object in view, or any notion 
of the cardinal principles to.be observed in carrying out these 
operations. Too often features are introduced in this way, 
wholly regardless of their suitability to surrounding objects and 
conditions. <A tree or a shrub, or a group of trees or shrubs, 
is planted, a conservatory or rustic summer-house is built, 
an aquarium, rockery, or terrace is formed, a geometrical par- 
terre is devised, or a number of vases or groups of statuary are 
set up, and probably great pains and expense bestowed upon 
each separate work in order to produce an effective display ; 
but all to little purpose, on account of the disregard of the 
fundamental principle that each detail of a garden should be 
subservient to and in harmony with a definite plan, forming a 
complete picture or series of pictures. Gardening is a veritable 
art, and one whose varied details are not mastered without 
much application, power of thought, and natural taste. It is 
an art, too, that may be as effectively practised in the cottage 
garden or villa plot, as in the princely domain of hundreds or 
thousands of acres in extent. ‘The only difference should be in 
size and corresponding magnificence; none in regard to merit 
as a design appropriate to the situation. 
