594 



LAYING OUT FLOWER-GARDENS. 



of which seldom fewer than a hundred 

 different species were found scattered over 

 even a small garden, gave place to a few, 

 and those of the most decided characters, 

 both as regards form and colour. Indeed, 

 according to the best mode of arrangement 

 now practised, half-a-dozen species are 

 made to produce a far more pleasing effect 

 than half a hundred did in former times. 

 A ttempts have even been made, and some 

 progress, it must be admitted, has been 

 effected, in the arrangement of forms and 

 colours, according to what is called scien- 

 tific or artistic arrangement, with a view 

 to bring out the harmony or contrast of 

 colour in the garden with the same preci- 

 sion as it is exemplified on paper or on 

 canvass. This is a subject much more 

 easily talked of than executed ; and this 

 the more so, when we consider that the 

 material at the command of the planter 

 is for ever changing, and that, were it 

 even otherwise, the most perfect picture 

 he could produce to-day is liable to be 

 annihilated to-morrow. A frosty morn- 

 ing, a gale of wind, or a thunder shower, 

 will reduce the labour and conceptions of 

 a season into a chaos of confusion and 

 disappointment. Although in vegetation 

 we have all the shades of colour in the 

 spectrum, still we have not these under 

 our command. The plants which produce 

 them may be of the most opposite cha- 

 racters as to form; they may not flower 

 at precisely the same time, and may not 

 continue in flower for the same period. 

 A colour dies out here; another, intended 

 for a blue, comes up white there. A plant, 

 under ordinary circumstances intended to 

 rise to the height of a foot, from the dry- 

 ness of the season, or poverty of the soil, 

 may not attain that of 3 inches ; while one 

 of the latter height may, in consequence 

 of some favourable circumstance, assume a 

 magnitude of thrice its natural dimensions. 



These are a few only of the difficulties 

 that present themselves to even the most 

 judicious planters. There are other cir- 

 cumstances of even a more discouraging- 

 aspect which occur in every attempt to 

 produce what is called harmonious colour- 

 ing in parterres, and that is, the unde- 

 cided state of taste in different indivi- 

 duals ; for what may be looked upon 

 as very beautiful by one, may be consi- 

 dered as diametrically the reverse by an- 

 other. " Many have fancies and antipa- 



thies to peculiar hues. All have their 

 tastes in regard to particular styles of 

 colouring. Some are fond of the gay and 

 lively ; some of the rich and powerful ; 

 and others of the deep and grave. Some 

 have a partiality for complex arrange- 

 ments, while others prefer extreme sim- 

 plicity." — (D. R. Hay, Laws of Harmo- 

 nious Colouring.) Taste is a subject upon 

 which both nations and individuals differ 

 widely ; and there are no productions of 

 whatever kind, even should they be some- 

 what extravagant and absurd, that have 

 not their admirers. Rules, it is true, have 

 been laid down by philosophical writers 

 on chromatics, as to the arrangement of 

 colours, defining, according to their theory, 

 the true principle of harmonious colour- 

 ing. Of these we may mention Sir Isaac 

 Newton, Field, Buffon, Chevreul, Repton, 

 Owen Jones, D. R. Hay, &c. These gentle- 

 men may be all correct enough as regards 

 the specific subjects to which they have 

 applied their theories ; but there is a wide 

 difference, we apprehend, between design- 

 ing a Manchester print, painting the 

 interior of the Crystal Palace, or the 

 decoration of a saloon or theatre, and the 

 harmonious arrangement of the forms and 

 colours in a garden covering five, ten, or 

 twenty acres of ground. Were there any 

 system of colour harmony authoritatively 

 recognised as of universal application — 

 as applicable equally to the distribution 

 of the tints on the wing of the moth, or 

 the petal of the tulip, and the massing of 

 the colours over great extents of scenery — 

 the case would be different. All that we 

 would have to do then would be to arrange 

 the colours, so far as the thing is prac- 

 ticable with vegetation, conformably to 

 these authoritative and universal laws. 

 But so far from this being the case, even 

 the most limited theories that have been 

 put forth are not authoritative ; and the 

 correctness of the principles of some of 

 them are disputed, as regards even the 

 application of them by those who have 

 laid them down. Until, therefore, a greater 

 unity of opinion ensues amongst such 

 authorities as we have named, as to the 

 harmony of colour in our parterres, it 

 would be unwise in us to pin our faith to 

 any of their theories. None of these 

 authorities, so far as we are aware, has 

 practically illustrated his views on the 

 ground ; and one of them, who had cer- 



