152 SUBURBAN GARDENS 
Which, brings me to the matter of flower 
beds, these being usually the medium of dis- 
play for overbearing flowers of this type. I 
am glad that the two are associated; glad that 
no one has ever dreamed of doing such a thing 
as plant a round bed of hollyhocks, or of any 
other fine old garden aristocrat, in the midst 
of a lawn. For of all gardening offenses the 
flower bed is surely the worst — the type of 
deadly and unpardonable sin — the murderer of 
harmony and beauty and repose. 
Such strong condemnation seems unneces- 
sarily severe, perhaps you say; but when the 
outrage which design suffers by having a de- 
tached, meaningless unit dropped into the 
midst of a fine and open space is added to the 
outrage inflicted upon an expanse of lawn by 
cutting its heart away to make room for flaunt- 
ing garden courtesans, and all this is multi- 
plied, who shall say how often, by our instinct 
for imitation led by the fear of being original, 
strong language is demanded. Better no flow- 
ers at all than a flower bed; there is at least no 
affront in the blankness of the unadorned — 
and it is peaceable if nothing more. 
The places for flowers in a garden are very 
much like the place for gems in a fine piece of 
jewelry. All the design leads up to them in a 
