FLOWER GARDEN. 235 
termination to a short walk, a desirable matter in most 
cases; for it has often been remarked that many parts of 
extensive grounds remain unvisited because they afford no 
remarkable object to attract attention. . 
The particular form of a flower garden is equally be- 
yond the inculcation of specific rules. Indeed, it may be 
of any shape, and, except where the dimensions are ex- 
tremely limited, the boundaries should not be continuously 
visible. The taste of the proprietor or designer, and the 
capabilities of the situation, must determine not only the 
external configuration, but also the arrangement of the in- 
terior parts. By judicious management, it may be made 
to pass through shrubbery, gradually assuming a more 
woodland character, and groups of trees, into the park on 
the one hand, and into the kitchen garden or orchard on 
the other. In most cases, even where it is in the vicinity 
of the mansion house, the flower garden should be encir- 
cled with some sort of fence, in order to convey the idea 
of protection, as well as to furnish security to the vegetable 
inmates of the parterres, it being impossible to carry on 
floriculture to any great extent in open places which are 
accessible to hares and rabbits, or any other kind of in- 
truders. In detached localities, the fences may be made 
sufficiently strong to preclude the intrusion of every species 
of vagrant; and these fences it is not difficult to mask with 
shrubs and trees. A north wall of moderate, extent and 
moderate elevation is often desirable, as affording space for 
ornamental climbers and half-acclimatized exotics, and as 
forming a point d’ appui for the conservatory and other 
botanical structures. Such a wall may be surmounted 
with urns and other architectural ornaments, and screened 
at some little distance behind by trees. The other fences 
may be of wire-work, generally called invisible, or of 
wooden rails, or of holly hedges with rails. 
