EMBELLISHMENTS. 
399 
The irregular flower-garden is surrounded by an irregu- 
lar belt of trees and ornamental shrubs of the choicest spe- 
cies, and the beds, are varied in outline, as well as irregularly 
disposed, sometimes grouping together, sometimes standing 
singly, hut exhibiting no uniformity of arrangement. An 
idea of its general appearance may be gathered from the 
accompanying sketch, (Fig. 75,) which may be varied at plea- 
sure. In it the irregular boundary of shrubs is shown at a, 
r the flower-beds 6, and the walks e. 
This kind of flower-garden would be a suitable accom- 
paniment to the house and grounds of an enthusiastic 
lover of the picturesque, whose residence is in the Rural 
Gothic style, and whose grounds are also eminently varied 
and picturesque. Or it might form a pretty termination to a 
distant walk in the pleasure-grounds, where it would be more 
necessary that the flower-garden should be in keeping with 
the surrounding plantations and scenery, than with the house. 
Where the flower-garden is a spot set apart, of any regular 
outline, not of large size, and especially where it is attached 
directly to the house, we think the effect is most satisfactory 
when the beds or walks are laid out in symmetrical forms. 
Our reasons for this are these ; the flower-garden, unlike dis- 
tant portions of the pleasure-ground scenery, is an appendage 
to the house, seen in the same view or moment with it, and 
therefore should exhibit something of the regularity which 
characterizes, in a greater or less degree, all architectural 
compositions ; and when a given scene is so small as to be 
embraced in a single glance of the eye, regular forms are 
found to be more satisfactory than irregular ones, which, on 
so small a scale, are apt to appear unmeaning. 
The French flower-garden is the most fanciful of the 
regular modes of laying out the area devoted to. this purpose. 
