584 



LAYING OUT FLOWER-GARDENS. 



pyramidal trees were also placed near and 

 partly intermingled with the spiral-top- 

 ped ones, the unity of the whole compo- 

 sition would be still more complete." 



From this the gardener will see the 

 propriety of breaking the monotonous 

 appearance of overgrown shrubberies, 

 whose outlines have grown into forms as 

 stiff as if clipped with the garden shears, 

 and whose uniformity of colour is from end 

 to end the same dull green of a huge Por- 

 tugal laurel. Lightening up such dense 

 and uniform masses by the introduction of 

 trees or shrubs of varied form and diver- 

 sity of colour will effect much, and he 

 may leave the margins to be dealt with 

 by a judicious use of the pruning-knife. 



One fatal mistake has too often been 

 fallen into in planting flower-garden 

 scenery, and even the groups on grass or 

 in dug shrubberies, which is, the desire to 

 possess collections of trees and shrubs 

 more valued for their rarity than for the 

 effect they are capable of producing in 

 landscape. It is vain to expect pictorial 

 beauty by congregating together genera 

 and species, and arranging them upon 

 principles of systematic order. This 

 latter task, laudable as it is, must be 

 developed in an entirely different plan, 

 and that plan is— the Arboretum and 

 Fruticetum. 



In laying out flower-gardens so as to 

 produce effect, they ought to be symme- 

 trical — that is, they ought to have a cen- 

 tre, which will appear decided at first 

 sight. All the figures or compartments 

 into which the garden is laid out ought 

 to be so connected with that centre as 

 not to be separable from it, without de- 

 stroying the general effect of the whole. 

 All the beds ought to have one general 

 character of form and outline. Their size 

 ought also never to differ to such an ex- 

 tent as to give the idea of large and small 

 beds being mixed together ; and the 

 general surface ought to be of the same 

 character throughout ; — that is, it ought 

 not to be undulated on one side of the 

 centre, and flat on the other. Without 

 uniformity of surface we cannot have 

 symmetry of form in the arrangement ; 

 and hence irregular surfaces are the most 

 difficult to manage when the design is to 

 be in any of the modifications of the 

 geometrical style. In the arrangement 

 of the plants in any of these, equal care is 



required, so that unity may be preserved 

 throughout. 



In planting parterres for general effect, 

 the colours should be so arranged that 

 those which adjoin each other should con- 

 trast, and those occupying corresponding 

 parts of the same figure should be the 

 same. If we suppose a bed on one side 

 of the centre to be planted with red 

 flowers, the corresponding bed on the 

 other (the figure being symmetrical) 

 should also be planted with the same 

 kind of red flowers, to insure the pre- 

 servation of symmetry and contrast. 



§ 5. — THE ARBORETUM 



Is a comparatively modern designation 

 given to a portion of ornamental planting 

 in parks and pleasure-grounds, and in its 

 general acceptation is understood to be a 

 collection consisting of as many genera, 

 species, and varieties of hardy trees and 

 shrubs as the means or taste of the pro- 

 prietor leads him to indulge in. The 

 arboretum, as a whole, should contain 

 every tree sufficiently hardy for our 

 climate, and may be planted or arranged 

 according to botanical classification. In 

 this way, however, seldom more than one 

 specimen is allowed to exist in the collec- 

 tion, and all are arranged so that each 

 species with its varieties shall follow im- 

 mediately next to that to which it is 

 nearest allied. This mode of arrange- 

 ment, however suitable to the views of 

 the strictly systematic botanist, is ex- 

 ceedingly ill adapted to culture, and 

 much more so to the production of pic- 

 torial effect. In the former, each plant 

 must stand in its prescribed place, whether 

 it be a tree of 100 feet or more in alti- 

 tude — as Abies excelsa— or of 3 or 4 feet 

 only, as is the case of one of its twelve 

 varieties — Abies clanbrasiliana. The same 

 objection may be urged in other cases, 

 where one species of a genus prefers a 

 light exposed sandy soil, and another of 

 its near allies one of a strong tenacious 

 clay, or probably is by nature a sub- 

 aquatic. One specimen of a species may, 

 from many accidental causes, represent 

 exceedingly ill the true character of its 

 kind ; and hence, instead of giving a cor- 

 rect idea of its habit, size, and character, 

 give a very erroneous one. In a pictorial 



