BEDDING PLANTS. 225 



wall, and tlien the acalyphas and amarantus and geraniums 

 and finally the pyrethrums and altei'nantheras. This is all 

 regular and in due form, and so is the waving line of the 

 border of bed both on the inside and out. 



The peculiar part of this arrangement of bedding lies 

 in the way the large plants, such as cannas, etc., are brought 

 forward nearly to the front of the mass. Then across the 

 border to the very grass are carried narrow clusters of 

 acalyphas, geraniums, etc. These promontories of color are 

 thrown out where the border of grass is narrowest, and in 

 the bays of the bedding single specimens of geraniums and 

 acalyphas are set in the grass opposite the same plants 

 growing in the mass ; the whole arrangement being in- 

 tended to impress the eye as a continually changing effect 

 of recesses and bays and promontories and valleys of the 

 richest color. 



The illustration, on the following page, of varying ellip- 

 ses or discs, superimposed one over the other, makes an 

 excellent and artistic effect of broadly massed colors in 

 bedding. 



The illustrations of bedding I have thus far discussed 

 briefly have been carefully designed in the following man- 

 ner : Measurements were taken of the exact spot the pro- 

 posed bed was to occupy, and the figure was drawn oiit on 

 a sheet of paper, showing at the same time any adjoining 

 buildings, walks, or shrub groups. A list of plants to be 

 used in the bed was then made and their heights and colors 

 at maturity written out. It then became a question of 

 combining colors and various heights of plants into a single 



artistic effect. The outlines and proportions of the various 



15 



