THE ELIZABETHAN FLOWER GARDEN 107 
play of flowers. There was not any room left for planting 
other things between the lines of thyme, thrift, hyssop, or what¬ 
ever the intricate pattern was carried out in. Sometimes the 
design was simply drawn out in coloured earths, a practice of 
which Bacon disapproved : “As for the making of knots or 
figures with divers-coloured earths . . . they be but toys ; you 
may see as good sights many times in tarts.” The more simple 
knots were usually bordered with box, a practice which seems 
to have been introduced by French gardeners. Parkinson calls 
it “ French or Dutch Box,” and recommends it “ chiefly and 
above all other herbs,” as it was not so liable to overgrow the 
beds and distort the pattern, as “ Thrift, Germander, Mar- 
jerome, Savorie,” etc., and did not suffer so much from “ the 
frosts and snows in winter,” or “ the drought in summer.” 
Lavender cotton (Santolina chamczcyftarissus), a new importa¬ 
tion, was also used, and “ the rarity and novelty of this herb 
being for the most part but in the gardens of great persons, doth 
cause it to be of greater regard.” 1 
If herbs or box were not used for bordering, “ dead material ” 
was the alternative, such as lead, either plain or “ cut out 
like unto the battlements of a church,” or oak boards, or tiles, 
or the shank-bones of sheep, “ stuck in the ground, the small 
end downwards, which will become white, and prettily grace 
out the ground.” Another plan was to use “ round whitish or 
blewish pebble stones ”—this method Parkinson puts last in 
his list, “ for it is the latest invention . . . and maketh a pretty 
handsome shew.” It seems strange that such a simple thing 
as stones for edging should not have been thought of before. 
Within these edgings, the " open knots ” were filled with 
flowers, “ all planted in some proportion as neare one unto 
another as is fit for them,” which “ will give such grace to the 
garden that the place will seem like a piece of tapestry of many 
glorious colours.” Parkinson divides the flowers to be planted 
in gardens roughly into two sections, " English Flowers ” and 
“ Outlandish Flowers.” Among English flowers he names all 
those that have already been noticed as being grown in earlier 
times, such as primroses, daisies, marigolds, gillyflowers, violets, 
roses, and columbines, and among outlandish flowers, or 
1 Parkinson. 
