Formal Flower-Beds 
a little later, of the coleus and other bright- 
leaved exotic plants. But I think that this 
view must be mistaken. I think it must be 
truer to turn the statement about and say 
that geraniums and coleus - plants became 
popular because public taste had begun to 
demand bright-colored and stiff material for 
a special gardening purpose. 
This purpose was part of a generally in- 
creasing desire to ornament home-grounds 
as effectively as possible with the smallest 
possible expenditure of thought and pains. 
An immediate result and a showy result— 
this was the end desired in our gardens ; 
and no way of securing it seemed so seduc- 
tive as to mass such plants as coleus and 
geraniums in large bodies so that their viv- 
idness of leaf and flower should be brought 
into strong relief by an expanse of closely 
cut turf. 
The desire thus expressed was not, in it- 
self, very laudable ; and the device it seized 
upon is less satisfactory, even from a purely 
practical point of view, than it appears to 
superficial thought. It would be easy to 
show that the practice of “bedding-out” 
