LAI^"DSCAPE GAEDENS. 



3 



be tinted and varied by winding devious gravel paths, 

 and diverse vegetation ; and flat parts may have ponds 

 for water fowl, surrounded by rising ground planted as 

 shrubberies. Sheets of water, the largest at command, 

 must on no account be absent from the landscape garden. 

 In fact, there is no end to the beauties which the gardener 

 may press into his service in working a rough bit of 

 ground, including high ground and low, into cultivation. 



In such ground ultra-precise gardening would be out 

 of place. The paths should be kept neat, but they do 

 not need a border : the undergrowth of trees and shrubs 

 at their edge will in many places make the best-looking 

 border they can have ; and where they leave patches that 

 would look bare, grass may be encouraged to grow, and 

 wild and other hardy flower roots which the locality will 

 suit may be planted. Lilies of the valley, wood ane- 

 mones, primroses, periwinkle, and all shade-loving, free- 

 flowering roots may be used for this purpose. The trees 

 and shrubs for clumps and shrubberies must be chosen 

 according to the space at command. If the shrubbery 

 or space to be planted be not large, variety should be 

 studied : plant only one tree and shrub of a kind. If, 

 on the contrary, the ground to be planted be extensive, 

 with varieties in the formation of the ground, group the 

 trees, &c., in masses of several of a sort in one group, and 

 let no one group be like another. In planting the ground 

 think of the future : plant as sparsely as you may, the 

 trees and shrubs will require thinning out ivitliin five 

 years, but they should be so planted as not to get 

 overcrowded much sooner than that. I remember a 

 shrubbery walk the outline of which always seemed to 

 me very pretty and picturesque, and would have done if 

 the dear name of home had not appertained to its locality. 

 The walk turned off at an angle from the entrance gate, 

 and took a zigzag course, hidden in its own shrubbery, 

 round a wide deep lawn, and led to a side entrance some 

 distance from the house. At the corner, by the gate, a 

 fine horse-chestnut towered over every other tree (except 

 the poplar and the larch) ; on a bank, covered with peri- 

 winkle and St. John's wort, on the side of the path 



B 2 



