126 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 
these enclosures for English trees and English shrubs, it 
would be found that none have been introduced.” 
It would be even more charming in a London Park 
than a suburban garden to plant some of the delights of 
our English country, such as thorns, crab apples, elder, 
and wild roses, with horse-chestnuts, and hazel. What can 
be more beautiful than birches at all times of the year ? 
That they grow readily, their well-washed white stems 
in Hyde Park testify. Birds, too, love the native trees, 
and some of the songsters, which till lately were plentiful 
in many parks, might return to build if thus encouraged. 
There is much monotony in the laying out of all 
these parks. The undulating green turf with a wavy 
line of bushes seems the only recognised form. A narrow 
strip of herbaceous plants is put between the smutty 
bushes and well-mown turf, and the official park flower- 
border is produced. Curving lines of uncertain direction, 
tortuous paths that carefully avoid the straight line, are 
all part of the generally received idea of a correct outline. 
It is always more easy to criticise than to suggest, but 
surely more variety would be achieved if parks were 
planted really like wild gardens—the groups of plants 
more as they might occur in a natural glade or woodland. 
Then let the herbaceous border be a thing apart—a garden, 
straight and formal, or curved and round, but not always 
in bays and promontories jutting into seas of undulating 
green. A straight line occasionally is a great rest to the 
eye, but it should begin and end at a definite and tangible 
point. The small Park in Camberwell has a little avenue 
of limes running straight across, with a centre where seats 
can be put and paths diverge at right angles. It is quite 
small, and yet the Park would be exactly like every other 
piece of ground, with no particular design, without this. 
