199. The general form is that of a parallelogram, as shown in fig. 59. In this plan the street entrance is by the veranda (a) to the porch (o), which leads to the staircase (e), dining-room (d), library (e), drawing-room (f), and green-house, heated from the back of the drawing-room and library fires (g). The kitchen-court is shown at h, and steps from the drawing-room to the lawn at i. At k, are steps down to the kitchen area, for servants; and at l, a flight of steps up to the green-house, for the gardener. The green-house has one glass door to the drawing-room, and another to the library; and, where the waste heat is not sufficient to keep out the frost, recourse is supposed to be had to one of Joyce's stoves, or some other apparatus for burning charcoal. This last resource, however, will seldom be necessary, if, every night during the most severe weather, the family, immediately before quitting the drawing-room and library, throw open the green-house doors; which will tend to equalise the temperature of the three apartments.

As the furniture, books, walls, etc, in the drawing-room and library, must necessarily be heated to a temperature of about 60°, it will be several hours before the demand for heat by the green-house will reduce these rooms 20°, which would give a temperature common to the three of 40°; at which, or even at 35°, green house plants will take no harm. Two detached pavilions, supported on four latticed pillars, form a break in the walks at m and a, and serve as a foreground to. the back garden, and vice versa; and between these and the boundary walla there are covered seats at n n: o o are flower-beds; p is a plantation of low trees and shrubs, each plant standing distinct, in the gardenpsque manner, and, in the plan, the trees being distinguished from the shrubs by their darker shade. For two or three years after these trees and shrubs are planted, the ground about them may be kept free from grass and weeds, and occasionally hoed or slightly dug; and for this purpose the plantation ought to be included in a definite outline, such as is formed by the edging of the walk on one side, and by the line q r on the other.

As soon, however, as the plants have acquired sufficient strength to grow on a grassy surface, the outline on the lawn side may be obliterated, such of the trees and shrubs as touch, one another thinned out, and the surface sown down with the finer grass seeds; the whole uniting and harmonising with the lawn, as indicated at p and s. We may observe here, as a general rule, that, in the gardenesque manner, wherever the ground is to be dug among trees or shrubs, the boundary should be definite; because the principle is, that a definite outline is most convenient for culture, and for the display of individual beauty. On the other hand, in a picturesque plantation, where the surface is to be dug, the outline should be indefinite, or consist of a ragged line; because indefi- ' niteness and irregularity are properties of the picturesque. We may farther observe, for the sake of referring practice to principles, that, in a small garden bounded by right lines, like that before us, it will seldom be desirable to imitate the picturesque manner of gardening, and scarcely ever to form picturesque outlines; because, as the outline of the whole ought to serve as a guide for the outline of the parts, and as that outline, in the case of the smaller suburban gardens, is generally a square or a parallelogram, or, at all events, a right-lined figure, a picturesque line within would ill harmonise with the other lines; and, whatever kind of outline we might form on one side of the mass, or group, that on the other side could hardly fail to be geometrical or gardenesque.

Thus, for example, if, instead of the definite line q r in fig. 59., a ragged line had been substituted, still, though that side-would have had a picturesque outline, the other side of the plantation next the walk must still have been straight and definite, at in the plan; and that the boundary on one aide of the mass would have been at direct variance with the boundary on the other side. Almost the only case in which a picturesque boundary can be given to a group in a small square or parallelogram garden, like the present, is where the group stands completely detached on the lawn, as in fig. 60. at a; or where a marginal plantation is placed against the boundary fence, as at b. These outlines represent the boundary of the dog space before it is planted; but, after it has been planted a few years, this outline will be almost entirely obliterated by the trees and shrubs spreading over it, as shown in fig. 61.

200. There is a small fruit-garden at t, consisting of a central bed, in which strawberries, gooseberries, currants, raspberries, etc, are cultivated for being eaten as gathered by the family; and it is surrounded by a border, containing a trellis, on which some gooseberry and currant trees are trained, but which is chiefly covered with the finer kinds of cherries, plums, and summer pears, for the same purpose. There is a reserve garden at x x, for the cultivation of sweet herbs, salading, tart rhubarb, etc.; and for flowers for supplying the beds (o) on the lawn and the side borders (a). There is a small forcing-stove (v) for bringing forward roses, bulbs, mignonette, etc., for the green-house (g), and for growing early salading; and a flued pit (to), of the same size, in which a reserved stock of green-house plants may be kept. The borders (a a), it will be observed, are of considerable width for a small garden; and it is proposed to devote them entirely to flowers. The walls may either be planted with fruit trees, or with the higher class of ornamental low trees and shrubs, according to the taste of the owner.

If the latter plan were adopted, and no duplicates introduced into the plantation qr sp, or into the boundary plantation from m by a to m, then in this garden there might be included all the finer low trees and shrubs of the British arboretum. The display of roses, Japan, Chinese, and American honeysuckles, magnolias, wistarias, passion flowers, pomegranates, Clematis, Cydonia japonica, Chimonanthus, and a host of other articles of the same kind, which either have been or will be enumerated, would be delightful at every season of the year; while in the borders might be passed in review all the finer herbaceous plants, annuals, perennials, or bulbous. The green-house (g), though small, yet being supplied by the small forcing-stove (v) and the reserve-pit (to), would make a fine display throughout the year; and, if it were thought desirable, there might be a vault under each of these pits for growing mushrooms, and forcing sea-kale, tart rhubarb, or chicory. The arabesque beds (o), and the small circular and triangular beds which accompany them, will contain a very fine display of half hardy annuals during summer, and masses of crocuses, snowdrops, tulips, and other bulbs, in spring.

In short, this garden, of an acre and three quarters, under the management of a master fond of gardening, and with the assistance of a single labourer, might contain almost every thing that is desirable in a suburban garden. The general appearance of the house, veranda, walls, and walks, is shown in the isometrical view, fig. 62.