630 Ornamental Gardening. 
only as seen from the house, but also from different points 
of the garden. The parterre or flower-garden proper varies 
according to circumstances and resources, from a symmetrical 
arangement of a dozen or twenty beds, to the most complex 
and elaborate designs; and it may consist, in part, at least, 
of a combination of beds and walks, or, what is more effective 
where the space between the heds is sufficient, an open design 
on the lawn. Fig. 264 is the plan of a flower-garden of the 
middle of the seventeenth century ; but such elaborate plans 
are rarely carried out now, and, of course, are only suitable for 
a very large establishment, where the resources for stocking 
the flower-garden are almost unlimited. Some very simple 
arrangement of geometrical figures, or sections of figures, is 
that in general use at the present time, and these can be 
altered and modified to suit any outline. 
While on this subject we may say a few words on the 
arrangement of colours, as on that alone depends the success of 
the system of massing flowering and foliage platts. Though 
not of so much importance in the mixed border, it should be 
one of the first considerations. 
It is necessary to bear in mind that there are only three 
simple or primary colours, from which all the others are de- 
rived, namely, red, yellow, and blue; and that their completes 
fusion in certain determined proportions produces a sensation 
of white to the eye. These colours combined in pairs give 
birth to the composite colours. Orange, to wit, is the result 
of the union of red and yellow, green comes from the blending 
of yellow and blue, and violet is a combination of blue and red. 
The tint of these mixed colours varies according to the rela- 
tive proportion of the two elements which enter into its 
composition; and as there ix no limit to the variations of the 
proportions themselves, the result is an infinite number of 
intermediate shades between the two composing colours. A 
complementary colour is that which when added to a combina- 
tion of colours, or a simple colour, will reconstitute the triad of 
elementary colours. Thus, green—composed of blue and yellow 
—is the complementary of red; violet—proceeding from red 
and blue—is the complementary of yellow ; orange—composed 
of red and yellow—is the complementary of blue; and recipro- 
cally, blue, yellow, and red are complementary to orange, 
violet, and green. The fusion of a colour with its comple- 
mentary would naturally produce white. Black is merely the 
absence, or total extinction of the three elementary colours. 
