THE PARTERRE. 



39 



aided by the comparative paucity of fine plants which 

 existed when parterres were introduced. Some at- 

 tempts have been recently made to revive this style 

 in its original perfection; but when it is considered 

 how difficult it is to adapt designs, intended for spaces 

 of six or eight acres, to pieces of ground about one- 

 eighth of that size, we cannot be surprised that they 

 have uniformly failed. Besides, the ancient style is 

 entirely out of harmony with the modern taste in re- 

 lation to all the other component parts of a country 

 residence. We might as well propose to convert a 

 modern drawing-room, with all its elegances, into a 

 baronial hall of the fifteenth century. The modern 

 parterre is not quite so complicated in its figures, even 

 when cut out of turf, in which case it is most akin to 

 that .of the ancient forms. "When formed of borders, 

 with- box or other edgings, it is intended to be filled 

 with plants, and may be made a place of considerable 

 beauty. In its geometrical forms it still requires as 

 nice adjustment as ever; but the interest is not now 

 made to center wholly, or in great part, in its con- 

 figurations and traceries. The principal aim of such 

 scenes should be, not the display of the artist's ill- 

 directed ingenuity, but the exhibition of fine plants, 

 which, in their present numbers and beauty, afford 

 abundant materials for the adornment of flower-gar- 

 dens. Annuals and green-house plants are chiefly 

 required for the summer and autumn decoration of 

 parterres ; but a supply of evergreens and vernal plants 

 should be kept in pots, to fill up the vacant beds in 

 winter and spring. A due attention to these expedi- 

 ents will maintain in the parterre a permanently 

 clothed appearance, and will preclude that bare and 



