52 



THE PARC MOKCEAU. 



bed of those above enumerated was that composed of varie- 

 gated Arundo and Lobelia — the former a plant that may be 

 readily grown on good soils in Britain, and merely requiring 

 the protection of a little ashes, refuse, or an old mat over 

 the crown in winter, even in soils that are not particularly 

 favourable, while the Lobelia is one of the many fragile and 

 delicately pretty little plants that do perhaps best of all in 

 England. The fact is, we can find numbers of plants 

 among the hardy and free-growing kinds, which will enable 

 us to enjoy all the desired variety and diversity, even if we 

 cannot wisely venture to plant out Wigandias and coloured 

 Drac^nas except in the more favoured districts of southern 

 England and Ireland. 



One of the most useful and natural ways of diversifying 

 and dignifying a garden, and one that we rarely or never 

 take advantage of, is abundantly illustrated here, and as it 

 is perhaps the most important lesson to be learnt in the 

 garden, we will discuss it at some length. It simply con- 

 sists in placing really distinct and handsome plants alone 

 upon the grass, to break the monotony of clump margins 

 and of everything else. They may be placed singly or in 

 open groups, near the margins of a bold clump of shrubs 

 or in the open grass ; and the system is applicable to all 

 kinds of hardy, ornamental subjects, from trees downwards, 

 though in our case the want is for the fine-leaved plants 

 and the more distinct hardy subjects. Nothing, for in- 

 stance, can look better than a well-developed tuft of the 

 broad-leaved Acanthus latifolius, springing from the turf 

 not far from the margin of the walk through a pleasure 

 ground ; and the same is true of the Yuccas, Tritomas, and 



^ other things of like character and 



Fig. 22. . ° 



hardiness. We may make attractive 



groups of one family, as the hardiest 

 Yuccas j or splendid groups of one 

 species like the Pampas grass — not 

 by any means repeating the indivi- 

 dual, for there are about twenty va- 

 Groups can cl single specimens ricties of this plant known on the 



of plants isolated on the ^ . . . ^ ^ tip 



grass. Continent, and irom these nali a 



