198 THE LADIES’ MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
orange compound. In some cases, where one colour is employed in a 
large quantity, and another in a very small quantity, one primitive colour 
may be opposed to another with good effect. For example, adjoining a 
mass of blue there may be a speck of red, or of yellow. This doctrine 
holds good more particularly when masses of compound colours are 
employed; and thus, nothing is finer in effect than a mass of green, with 
two or three specks of red, or of bright yellow. If we consider black and 
white as primitive colours, the same doctrine will apply to them; and 
thus specks of bright light, or of clear black, may be placed adjoining, 
or among objects of any colour whatever. 
In disposing of an assortment of plants in bloom, with a view to pro¬ 
ducing a general harmony of colouring, or even in making up a nosegay 
for the same purpose, the same colours should recur at least thrice in the 
same garden or border, or in the same nosegay. One of these masses of 
colour ought to be larger than any of the others of the same kind; and 
the other two masses, or specks, ought to be of different sizes, and not so 
far distant from the first, or principal mass, as not to be easily recognised 
by the eye. This necessity for three or more portions of colour, of a 
principal mass and of secondary ones, is derived from the principle of a 
whole ; for to constitute this there must not only be parts, but a predomi¬ 
nating part. 
Thus, in arranging flowering plants in a conservatory, each colour 
should be carried on in the same manner, and according to the same rules 
of art as a painter would colour a large picture. The green is carried 
throughout the whole naturally by the leaves, but the reds, the blues, and 
the yellows, or any of their intermediate shades, should be so arranged as 
to carry each colour on throughout the whole, so as to satisfy the eye. 
In the disposition of flowers and trees, a perfect black seldom if ever 
occurs; indeed, there is no such thing in nature as a perfectly black flower; 
but the very deep browns and blues in flowers, and the very dark ever¬ 
greens in trees, may be treated as blacks. These, with whites, which are 
abundant in flowers, and to be found in trees with silvery foliage, may be 
sparingly introduced everywhere, but never in masses, where the end to 
be attained is gaiety, variety, or beauty. Pine woods are objects of 
gloom and grandeur, and plantations of silvery willows, or other white¬ 
leaved trees, are scenes of great sameness and insipidity. When single 
pines occur, or single willows, or groups of two or three of either class of 
trees, they become objects of a different kind, and are either picturesque, 
elegant, varied, or even beautiful, according to their own particular forms, 
or the surrounding circumstances. Thus a pine, backed by a near hill, 
appears of a lighter green, while a white willow, backed by the sky, 
