PARTERRE. 



203 



PARTERRE. 



England, and in great abundance on 

 trees in the moist climates of Devon- 

 shire, Lancashire, Cumberland, &c. 

 It is very abundant on the Oaks in 

 the grounds of the Poet Wordsworth, 

 on the banks of the lake of Amble- 

 side. Almost the only herbaceous 

 parasite which can be conveniently 

 cultivated in gardens is the Cuscuta 

 europcea, the seeds of which when 

 gathered on heaths or in hop grounds, 

 may be sown at the roots of almost 

 any herbaceous plant in gardens, 

 when they will spring up, twine rouud 

 it, and perhaps ultimately strangle it. 

 Cuscuta verrucosa is sometimes 

 grown in greenhouses on Geraniums, 

 and is noted for the fragrance of its 

 blossoms. (See Cuscuta.) Orobanche 

 major is very common in clover 

 fields in Norfolk, and greatly injures 

 the crops of that valuable forage 

 plant. It also grows on the roots of 

 broom and furze. See Orobanche. 



Parasol Acacia. — Robinia umbra- 

 culifera. See Robinia. 



Parterre. The French term for 

 what in England is called a flower- 

 garden, but which in France in former 

 times when the word was originated, 

 was most frequently a figure formed 

 on the surfV.ee of the ground by turf, 

 box, and gravel or sand, with occa- 

 sional flowers or low shrubs. In 

 these parterres flowers and shrubs 

 were altogether secondary objects, 

 the main features being the compart- 

 ments of turf and the curious scroll- 

 work of box. The French divided 

 their parterres into three kinds : 

 parterres of embroidery, which con- 

 sisted chiefly of scroll-work or ara- 

 besque figures of box kept low by clip- 

 ping ; parterres de compartiments, 

 which consisted chiefly of beds of 

 turf of different forms, varied by small 

 shrubs clipped into regular shape, and 

 parterres anglaises, which con- 

 sisted of turf in large masses, with 

 beds of flowers surrounded by box. 



Parterres of embroidery are now 

 rarely to be met with either in 

 France or England ; they have been 

 totally destroyed at Versailles and 

 Fontainebleau ; and in Engl and ,tho ugh 

 we have old French gardens at Le- 

 vens near the Lakes of Westmore- 

 land, at Roxton near Banbury, and 

 other places, yet almost the only par- 

 terres of embroidery of long standing 

 are at Wentworth Castle, Yorkshire, 

 and Holland House, in Kensington, 

 and the more recently formed ones at 

 Wrest in Bedfordshire, and Tren- 

 tham Hall in Staffordshire. Par- 

 terres of compartments among the 

 French generally consisted of one 

 square, round, or parallelogram plot 

 of turf in the centre, surrounded by a 

 border of narrow beds planted with 

 flowers and low shrubs, and these are 

 at present common both in France 

 and Erjgland. Parterres anglaises 

 may now be considered as included 

 in the parterres of compartments ; 

 because the French do not now cut 

 up the ground into so many beds as 

 formerly, and plant a great many 

 more flowers than they did in the 

 time of Le Notre. In all the French 

 parterres of former times, and also in 

 most of those imitated in England, 

 the groundwork, or in other words, 

 the little walks on which the ara- 

 besques of box appeared to be planted, 

 were of different coloured sands, gra- 

 vel, shells, powdered stones or brick, 

 so as to exhibit different colours in 

 the same parterre ; but that practice 

 is now left off both on the Continent 

 and in Britain. In a word, parterres 

 are now assemblages of flowers in 

 beds or groups, either on a ground of 

 lawn or gravel ; in the former case 

 the beds are dug out of the lawn, and 

 in the latter they are separated from 

 the gravel by edgings of box or stone, 

 or of some plant, or durable material. 

 The shape of the beds in either case 

 depends on the style of architecture 



