SECTION IV.

APPLICATIONS TO HORTICULTURE.

INTRODUCTION (731.—732.).

SUB-SECTION I.

APPLICATION OF THE LAW OF CONTRAST TO HORTICULTURE.

CHAPTER I.—ON THE ART OF ASSORTING ORNAMENTAL PLANTS IN GARDENS, SO AS TO DERIVE THE BEST POSSIBLE EFFECT FROM THE COLOUR OF THEIR FLOWERS (733.—748.).

CHAPTER II.-ON THE ART OF ASSORTING LIGNEOUS PLANTS IN GARDENS SO AS TO DERIVE THE BEST POSSIBLE EFFECT FROM THE COLOUR OF THEIR FOLIAGE (749.-751.).

CHAPTER III.-EXAMPLES OF PLANTS WHICH MAY BE ASSOCIATED TOGETHER UNDER THE RELATION OF THE COLOUR OF THEIR FLOWERS (752.-766.).

CHAPTER IV.-EXAMPLES OF PLANTS WHICH MAY BE ASSOCIATED TOGETHER UNDER THE RELATION OF THE COLOUR OF THEIR FOLIAGE (767.).

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INTRODUCTION.

(731.) THE applications I propose to make to Horticulture are of two kinds: the one relates particularly to the arrangement of plants in gardens according to the colour of the flowers; the other relates to the method of distributing and planting ligneous plants in masses, which I suppose to have been previously planned. Doubtless I could have dispensed with treating of the latter subject; but I have been led to it so naturally, and the rules which guided me are so positive and simple, that I have no doubt of their proving profitable to such of my readers who may follow them in laying out plantations, &c.

(732.) This art is termed Gardening, or Landscape Gardening; and the artist who conducts these operations is called a Gardener or Landscape Gardener.

SUB-SECTION I.

APPLICATION ON THE LAW OF CONTRAST OF COLOURS TO HORTICULTURE.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE ART OF ARRANGING ORNAMENTAL PLANTS IN GARDENS, SO AS TO DERIVE THE GREATEST POSSIBLE ADVANTAGE FROM THE COLOURS OF THEIR FLOWERS.

INTRODUCTION.

(733.) AMONG the pleasures afforded us by the cultivation of choice plants, there are few so intense as the sight of a collection of flowers, varied in colour, form, and size, and in their position on the stems that support them. If the perfume they exhale has been extolled by the poets as equal to their colours, it must be admitted that they never create, through the medium of sight, disagreeable sensations analogous to those which some nervous organisations experience from their exhalations through the sense of smell. Colour, then, is doubtless, of all their qualities, that which is most prized. It is probably because we admire the plants individually, and become attached to them on account of the pains they cost us, that we have hitherto so generally neglected disposing them in such manner as to produce the best possible effect upon the eye seeing their flowers no longer separately, but together.

Thus, no defect is more common than that of proportion in the manner in which flowers of similar colours are distributed in a garden. Sometimes the eye is struck by blue or by white; sometimes it is dazzled by yellow. Add to this defect of proportion, the ill effect resulting from the vicinity of many species of flowers, which, although of the same kind

of colour, are not of the same sort; for instance, in spring we see the leopard's bane (doronica), of a brilliant golden yellow, side by side with the narcissus, which is of a pale greenish-yellow; in autumn, the Indian pink beside the African marigold, dahlias of various reds grouped together, &c. Such arrangements as these cause the eye, accustomed to appreciate the effects of contrast of colours, to feel sensations quite as disagreeable as those experienced by the musician whose ear is struck with discords.

(734.) Previous to my observations on Simultaneous Contrast, and the demonstration of the law which governs it, it was impossible to prescribe rules to horticulturists which, by instructing them to place, with certainty of success, flowers in proximity whose colours, reciprocally enhancing each other, would enable them to avoid either the monotony resulting from the grouping of flowers of the same colour, or the disagreeable effect of a collection of flowers whose hues are mutually injurious. And if the good effects of contrast were then spoken of, it was always in a vague and general manner, neither indicating the plants which ought to be grouped together, in order that their flowers should reciprocally enhance one another, nor those which must be placed apart on account of their colours mutually injuring each other. It is evident that after stating the Law of Simultaneous Contrast of Colours, distinguishing their various kinds of harmonies and their associations with white, black, and grey, the grouping of flowers will present no difficulty, since it will only be a simple conclusion from facts previously studied under all the relations which concern horticulture.

Conformably to the manner in which the applications of the law of contrast have been made to all the arts of which we have spoken, we shall distinguish in this place the associations of flowers which give rise to the harmonies of contrast, and those which give rise to the harmonies of analogy.

1.

ASSOCIATIONS OF FLOWERS WHICH RELATE TO THE HARMONIES OF
CONTRAST.

ARTICLE 1.

Associations of Flowers which relate to the Harmonies of Contrast of Colour.

(735.) We must first distinguish two general cases relatively to the interval which exists between the plants: that where the interval is such that we can see each specimen individually, and the other where they are so near together, that the flowers belonging to different specimens appear mixed pell-mell.

A. Associations where the Plants are apart.

(736.) The associations which relate to the harmonies of contrast of colour are first, those of flowers with colours mutually complementary to each other; such as,

Blue flowers and Orange flowers,

Yellow flowers and Violet flowers.

As to rose or red flowers, they contrast with their own leaves.

(737.) White flowers accord more or less favourably with blue and orange flowers already allied together, and perfectly with rose or red flowers, but not so well with yellow or with violet flowers already allied, as we might have presumed from what has been said of the interference of white in this last complementary arrangement (189.). White associates much less favourably with yellow, when the latter is brighter or

greener.

Whatever be the effect of this latter mixture and of the want of effect of a clump composed only of white flowers, one cannot, however, refuse to consider these same flowers as indispensable ornaments to a garden, after having once seen them suitably distributed among groups of flowers whose colours are associated conformably with the law of contrast;