lO 



THE BOOK OF GARDENING. 



by inserting intermediate pegs at short distances from each other, 

 say, every 14ft., or every 6ft. when the curves are short. 



The tracing of the alleys is most important, as it is in fact the 

 reproduction on the ground of the design of the garden. The 

 tracing of an avenue or of a straight alley, or, indeed, of any 

 other straight line which may occur in the design of a garden, 

 is such an easy operation, that it hardly requires any description. 

 The extremities are fixed, and intermediate pegs inserted upright 

 in the line at equal distances. The curved lines are more 

 difficult to trace. Geometrical curves can be calculated and 

 traced with invariable precision, but generally speaking they only 

 occur in geometrical or formal gardens, or in flower-beds. In the 

 tracing of gardens or parks, one has generally to deal with 

 fantastic curves with long, sweeping lines, and contra-curves with 

 ever-changing centres. Their execution requires great practice, 



Fig. 3. — Tracing a Curve from a Fixed Point. 



as they are traced by sight, without the help of any instrument. 

 Their outlines, so long as they are pleasing, do not require to 

 be traced with mathematical precision. Though this could be 

 obtained, it would entail considerable trouble and great loss of 

 time without giving any appreciably better result. 



I will begin by demonstrating the principle employed in tracing 

 a regular curve with only one centre, an operation which may be 

 done in two different ways. In the first, shown at Fig. 3, the 

 worker stands at and directs the operation without moving 

 from that spot. The pegs are set at equal distances, and the 

 apparent interval between them increases with the distance 

 from the point a. The represented curve is divided into 

 eight parts, and the apparent distance between each peg, as seen 

 from (7, will be respectively cd for ce^ ef for eg^ gh for gi^ &c. ; 

 that is, the intervals seen between those pegs are equal to the 



