Formal Gardening 
least the rudiments of the art of combining 
lines, masses, and colors ; but most of ours 
merely know how to make plants take root 
and flourish. 
Especially should we gain in our large 
cities if the architect who does public work 
took an interest in gardening and were al- 
lowed to express it. Now, when a fine 
public building fronts on a little park, this 
is usually left as it may have chanced to re- 
main from the time when it was a private 
garden or a bit of the fields ; or, if it is re- 
arranged, the effort is to make it look like a 
fragment of a landscape. And when the 
open space is smaller it is left as plain turf, 
or is dotted with purposeless single plants 
and scarred with loud isolated beds of co- 
leus. Greater beauty, greater dignity, a truer 
expression of the purpose of the spot as a 
forecourt to an important structure, might 
usually be attained by the use of consistent- 
ly formal or of semi -formal arrangements. 
And often we see city spaces where a flower- 
garden would indisputably be the best de- 
vice. 
All people like flowers, and no one loves 
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