PART VI. ORNAMENTAL GARDENING. 349 



By pouring water upon the plate e, abundance of steam may 

 foe produced, when requisite for the vines. The same kind of 

 plan is applicable to the fire-places of the family apartments, 

 only with a little more elegance in the curvature of the carron 

 plate next the room, &c. 



Small groups of shrubs and flowers, when placed 

 upon a lav/n, should always be of very irregular shape ; when 

 upon gravel, this must depend upon circumstances. If in a 

 part where art is avowed and ought to prevail, then the more 

 artificial the form, so much the better; but if merely a group 

 for dividing or varying a road, walk, or natural path at a dis- 

 tance from artificial scenes, then it should be as irregular as 

 those upon the lawn. In almost every case, whether these groups 

 are made regular, or irregular, they require to be cultivated for 

 some years afterwards. This, according to the present mode of 

 digging them, produces a harsh and disagreeable boundary line ; 

 and the chief improvement which I propose in this branch of 

 ornamental gardening, independently of arrangement, grouping, 

 and connexion, which have been already treated of, is to de- 

 stroy as much as possible this line of separation. Nothing can 

 be easier done ; it being only requisite to keep the earth on 

 the margin of the group of the same level as the lawn or pas- 

 ture, and to let both blend harmoniously together. As all 

 groups of this kind are only dug during a certain time ; that 



