THE DECORATIVE CHARACTER OF CONIFERS. 



59 



perpetual repetition by a judicious introduction of an arrange- 

 ment in quieter tone, a harmony in green and gold, or, shall we 

 say, a nocturne in bronze and silver ? 



If, despite Mr. Euskin, Mr. Whistler can command a following 

 of admirers, and show in those fancifully named productions 

 works of art and the creation of genius, and produce points to 

 admire in the subdued tones of browns and greys, may we not 

 put on the canvas laid out before us not strokes and patterns of 

 gay-coloured brightness alone, but here and there some bold 

 outline in those matchless shades of green, some pretty design 

 which will appeal by contrast, and will not seek to offer itself in 

 competition with the dazzle and glitter — which, mark, is in 

 no way condemned, but may be beautiful, often is gloriously 

 beautiful — to the ribbon border, or the geometrical garden, or 

 the other forms and devices which are to be found within the 

 walls, or the hedges, of the ilower-garden proper ? 



If the notion is too heterodox for ready acceptance, might it 

 not be urged that a trial might be made for the winter flower- 

 garden, and for a bed or a corner in the spring garden before the 

 burst of summer brings its wealth of flowers and its festoons of 

 fohage ? I saw a few days ago such a bed as I have in my mind's 

 eye, a bed say ten feet by five, cut out like a panel, upon a rich 

 sward of velvet green ; the bed was edged with close-growing 

 plants of Juniperus ]jrostrata, growing each way, that is reversed 

 in the planting, thus securing growth one into the other. The 

 bed contained thirty plants in all, including Betinospora pisi- 

 /era liitescens, ohtusa alba, tetragona aurea and squarrosaj 

 Cupressus Laicsoniana alba var. and argentea, and a few 

 plants of upright dense Irish Yews. None of the plants exceeded 

 eighteen inches to two feet in height, and others were barely a 

 foot high, but they were graded and arranged as effectively as 

 seemed possible, and produced an effect which the glory of the 

 adjoining border, rich with the autumn wealth of Sunflower, 

 Phlox and Gladioli, could not hurt ; it had a quiet impressiveness 

 all its own, and when the eye grew tired of the red and the 

 gold and the shades of purples and pinks in the herbaceous 

 border, it travelled back to this beautiful bed which illustrated, 

 powerfully, in one direction, the decorative character of Conifers. 



I have not touched upon many other points which suggest 

 themselves, such as the place Conifers may take in the planting 



