EMBELLISHMENTS. 
377 
Lobelias, Scarlet Geraniums, etc., etc.* This mode can 
be adopted here where a small green-house or frame is 
kept. In the absence of these, nearly the same effect may 
be produced by choosing the most showy herbaceous plains, 
perennial and biennial, alternating them with hardy bulbs, 
and the finer species of annuals. 
In Fig. 72, we give an example of a small cottage or 
villa residence of one or two acres, where the flower-beds 
are disposed around the lawn in the English style : their 
forms irregular, with curved outlines, affording a great 
degree of variety in the appearance as viewed from differ- 
ent points on the lawn itself. In this, the central portion 
is occupied by the lawn ; c, d, are the flower-beds, planted 
with showy border-flowers, in separate masses ; b , the 
conservatory. Surrounding the whole is a collection of 
choice shrubs and trees, the lowest near the walk, and those 
behind increasing in altitude as they approach the boundary 
wall or fence. In this plan, as there is supposed to be no 
exterior view worth preserving, the amphitheatre of shrubs 
and trees completely shuts out all objects but the lawn and 
its decorations, which are rendered as elegant as possible. 
Where the proprietor of a country residence, or the 
ladies of a family, have a particular taste, it may be indulged 
at pleasure in other and different varieties of the flower- 
garden. With some families there is a taste for botany, 
* In many English residences, the flower-garden is maintained in never- 
fading brilliancy by almost daily supplies from what is termed the reserve 
garden. This is a small garden out of sight, in which a great number of 
duplicates of the species in the flower-garden are grown in pots plunged in 
beds. As soon as a vacuum is made in the flower-garden by the fading of any 
flowers, the same are immediately removed and their places supplied by fresh 
plants just ready to bloom, from the pots in the reserve garden. This, which is 
the ultimatum of refinement in flower-gardening, has never, to our knowledge, 
been attempted in this country. 
