Tlie Country Gentleviaiis llagazinc 



143 



^rbovixuUuit. 



ORNAMENTAL TREES FOR CITY AND SUBURBAN PLANTING- 



ORNAMENTAL trees for city and sub- 

 urban planting have been engaging 

 the careful attention of arboriculturists and 

 nurserymen more and more during these 

 times. And very properly so, it may be re- 

 marked, for we do not know a subject in 

 connexion with villa and street adornment 

 that is of so moaientous an issue for minister- 

 ing to the comfort of the dweller in particular, 

 and of the promenader at large. Villas may 

 be ever so comfortable for purely domestic 

 comforts, but if they be wanting in exterior 

 adornment, they appear bald and cold 

 looking and comfortless, not only to those 

 specially interested, but even to the passers- 

 by. What a delightful thing it is to have a 

 bit of leafy screen at the back of the parapet 

 wall that bounds the villa or tenement from 

 the road, with its ornamental iron railings. It 

 intercepts, partially, the gaze of scrutinizing 

 eyes ; and supposing it did not, it gives life 

 and colour to the dead architectural pile. 

 The waving in the breeze of the green foliage 

 before the summer's zephyr, gives buoyancy 

 to the feelings, and has a tendency to make 

 mankind feel the happier and the better for 

 it. Every tree has an individuality of its 

 own — its habit, its formation of leaf, and its 

 tone of colouring — all command for it, or 

 ought to command for it, a more than mere 

 flitting glance. 



True, the dweller in the suburbs, who in- 

 habits a tenement, cannot have trees in their 

 majesty of growth, let the climate be ever so 

 good. The space confronting him is too 

 limited for that ; he must be contented with 

 a sort of pollard vegetation. The hand of 

 the pruner must interfere to keep tree life 

 within bounds. Trees are all very well in 

 their proper position ; but when we are to 

 make use of them as front or boundary 



screens in a limited area, we must keep them 

 within proper limits. It is not wisdom to 

 allow them to overshadow or interfere in too 

 great degree with the windows of tlie house. 

 A respectful distance must be maintained. 

 Besides intercepting the play of light when 

 they assume too great dimensions, they inter- 

 fere with the circulation of air ; and although 

 their leaves are constantly in search of those 

 nitrogenous gases inimical to the life of man, 

 which may be let out at the top of the sitting 

 room windows, they steal, or rather bar out, 

 that oxygen which has the proper animating 

 correcting influence on the health of the in- 

 mates, a little of which should be judiciously 

 admitted at the bottom sash. 



TREES FOR TENEMENTS OR VILLA 

 BOUNDARIES. 



Assuming, then, that we were asked the 

 question, What is the best tree for belting or 

 boundary purposes for any tenements or villas 

 in or about large cities, we should have some 

 hesitation in giving an off-hand reply. Were 

 we to say the Lime (Tilia europcea), we 

 would have many sympathetic supporters, but 

 we should have also a host of non-contents. 

 The first party would say, " I think you are 

 right. We have seen all the trees employed 

 for tenement adornment about cities and 

 towns, and we have no hesitation in saying 

 that the Lime moulds itself to the will of 

 those who are continually, or year by year, 

 amputating its limbs ; and, moreover, it is a 

 most beautiful-leaved tree, gives oft" its scent 

 'before the evening gale,' and stands pre- 

 eminently at the head of its fellows." This 

 is no doubt true, so far as it goes, but let us 

 hear what the second party says : — " I pre- 

 fer for my planting the Occidental Plane 

 ( riatanus occidentalis). It may not come 



