GRACEFUL BACKGROUNDS 
147 
GRACEFUL BACKGROUNDS. 
It is too readily assumed that the only 
proper background to a border is a 
clipped hedge, stiff and hard in outline, 
and often with still more objectionable 
features. That was the old notion and 
the only one, of designers of gardens, 
and for that reason we 
see there were gardens 
in which every tree was 
clipped, not only near 
the house but in the 
landscape also. It is 
a common feature of 
Dutch, French, and 
Austrian gardens, de- 
signed evidently by 
people who did not 
know one tree from an- 
other, but looked upon 
them all as bits of colour, 
much as they might 
stone or brick. One 
thing which the intro- 
duction of many plants 
to our country has done, 
is to give us material for 
rich and beautiful back- 
grounds, either in trees 
or shrubs, for stature, 
verdure, charm, and 
grace, if we will only use 
them and allow them to keep their na- 
tural shapes, which even tree-butchers 
might be induced to spare. Even if we 
have only straight walks to adorn, that 
is no reason for clipping our materials 
to the same stiff outlines, as we may see 
in the example here illustrated. We 
can select our trees and shrubs to the 
desired height and so as not to rise above 
I our wants in any given place, that is if 
we know them well enough ; and there 
are a great many to know. We get 
shelter, shade, and verdure, not from 
hard ugly lines but from things beautiful 
I in themselves. 
This is the great difference between 
A bTKAICHT U aLK 
E)igravi 
WITH Free Vecetation (Hammerkield, Renshurst). 
ed for " Flora" from a photograph liy F. Mason-Good. 
the modern and the ancient garden. In 
our artistically treated pleasure gardens 
of to-day we have freedom of line and 
graceful form, in addition to any beauty 
of flower the trees and plants may 
possess ; while the variety we have to 
help us is so great that we need never 
yield to monotony of colour or arrange- 
ment. 
