Formal Flower- Beds 



these hideous eccentricities could be matched 

 in other places in the West ; and in the East 

 we find at least the ordinary pattern - bed 

 misused in lamentable fashions. 



I do not know that the Public Garden in 

 Boston offers the worst instance of this mis- 

 use, but it is the one with which I am most 

 famihar. It is a delightfully situated piece 

 of ground, with a gently modulated surface 

 and a pretty sheet of water, and it is well 

 laid out in a naturalistic way. Some of its 

 architectural details are poor, but these 

 would not disturb us much if, year by 

 year, the gardener could be pursuaded to re- 

 strict his efforts in the way of bedding-out. 

 One-tenth as many bright-hued beds would 

 produce ten times as good an effect. In the 

 centre of the garden there is a straight path 

 w^hich crosses a stone bridge. Along this 

 path and in one or two other places stiff 

 and brilliant beds are appropriate. But 

 everywhere closely set along the edges of the 

 winding paths and near the base of freely 

 grouped trees, and isolated in the centre of 

 stretches of lawn, they ruin the charm of 

 what might be peacefully verdant, genuinely 



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