374 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
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, n 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. 
The patterns or figures employed are often highly intricate, 
and require considerable skill in their formation. The 
walks are either of gravel or smoothly shaven turf, and the 
beds are filled with choice flowering plants. It is evident 
that much of the beauty of this kind of flower-garden, or 
indeed any other where the figures are regular and intri- 
cate, must depend on the outlines of the beds, or parterres 
of embroidery , as they are called, being kept distinct and 
clear. To do this effectually, low growing herbaceous 
plants or border flowers, perennials and annuals, should be 
chosen, such as will not exceed on an average, one or two 
feet in height. 
In the English flower-garden, the beds are either in 
symmetrical forms and figures, or they are characterized 
by irregular curved outlines. The peculiarity of these 
gardens, at present so fashionable in England, is, that each 
separate bed is planted with a single variety, or at most 
two varieties of flowers. Only the most striking and 
showy varieties are generally chosen, and the effect, when 
the selection is judicious, is highly brilliant. Each bed, in 
its season, presents a mass of blossoms, and the contrast of 
rich colors is much more striking than in any other 
