240 



PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



no need of that seclusion which is often desirable in 

 the villa. At the same time, the moderate vailing of 

 the walls, and the securing of a proper degree of shel- 

 ter, „render the grouping and massing of trees and 

 shrubs indispensable. This want can be nearly, if not 

 completely, supplied by the skillful disposition of the 

 arboretum. The arrangement of trees and shrubs 

 should be such as to throw them into groups toward 

 the external walls in some places, and toward the in- 

 terior of the grounds in others ; by this means a variety 

 of open spaces, both in front of the walls and in the 

 center, will be left for collections of plants, and for 

 lawns to be decorated more or less with ornamental' 

 shrubs and showy annual and perennial flowers. 

 Lawns are seldom well managed in botanic gardens. 

 They often exhibit the dotting system in its perfection, 

 or are intersected by a multitude of paltry figures 

 crowded with herbaceous plants. We are not disposed 

 to recommend that these gardens should be laid out 

 generally for lawn-scenery, properly so called; the 

 space within them is too valuable to admit of that 

 system as a whole; but the introduction of one or 

 two lawns of moderate extent will relieve the prev- 

 alent appearance of crowding, and will soften the effect 

 of that multiplicity of figuring and dotting which, it 

 must be owned,, can not be wholly avoided. 



Another difficulty in the botanic garden, which is 

 often imperfectly overcome;, and sometimes is not even 

 attempted to be obviated, is to be found in the proper 

 management of the collections of herbaceous plants. 

 As these require a considerable space of ground, they 

 are frequently overcrowded. Perhaps their most gen- 

 eral effect is baldness and monotony — an effect not 



