PUBLIC GARDENS 229 



which has touched us in it — that one mind has composed 

 it. A visit which leaves the same impression is to 

 the Botanic Garden belonging to Trinity College, 

 Dublin. We have here, too, the happy feeling of " un 

 jardin intime." In spite of its being arranged primarily 

 for the instruction of a vast number of students, yet there 

 are signs everywhere that a man of great botanical 

 knowledge and refined taste has devoted himself to its 

 improvement. The garden is full of quaint surprises. 

 Although each plant has a large label, we really often 

 lose sight of its being a place for serious study, because of 

 the natural and original arrangement. Under all the 

 trees are masses of hellebore in every shade of pink, 

 green, and white. The herbaceous borders beneath very 

 high walls are broken up into irregular groups by large 

 masses of yuccas, aloes, and semi-tropical plants. These 

 give protection to the less rare flowers that grow in 

 open spaces between. We forget completely the usual 

 botanic garden of single specimens, and can almost trans- 

 port ourselves in imagination to a Riviera garden. All 

 the borders are wide, and large bushes or tall plants are 

 allowed to run out into the foreground here and there, 

 which breaks up the continuous line of plants of the 

 same height, which we notice beginners sometimes err 

 by maintaining. Colour effect is likewise gained by 

 having varied greens of bushes and trees between the gay 

 flowers. 



In planning colour effects for a public park, where 

 pleasure has to be given to a large number of people, 

 possessed of varied tastes and multifarious likes and 

 dislikes, it usually is necessary to resort to a considerable 

 amount of bedding-out, in preference to the natural 

 herbaceous border above alluded to. Things like 

 Canterbury bells, simple as they are, require then to be 

 brought on in pots, so that, when they are wanted to fill 



