THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 119 



toes are comfortable. This cannot be said of heads and toes in general. The holly 

 always dies at top as soon as the roots reach any poisonous stuff, such, as stagnant 

 water ; and the apple-tree becomes gouty, and will actually become disfigured with 

 running sores, if the roots are compelled to run in wet, sour, or exhausted soil. 



As to grand subjects, the most difficult to deal with are coniferous trees. In 

 close proximity to a smoky town, the commoner sorts of junipers and yews alone 

 should be planted, and these stand smoke well, especially in a deep, moist soil. In 

 the suburban garden, ^;ar excellence, where, we will say, there is smoke enough to 

 give to large-leaved evergreens a rich dark hue, the following are the very best 

 coniferous trees that can be planted ; Cedrus Deodara, Araucaria imbricata, and 

 Cupressus Lawsoniana. The last is one of the best town trees in the world, but is 

 not appreciated as such. In every villa garden we find araucarias and deodaras, 

 but suburban people do not take to the cypress, and so they lose a friend. These, 

 with yews and junipers, will go a great way towards the supply of rich furniture, 

 and special note may be made of the fact that the flat-headed yew, Taxus adpressa, 

 will thrive in the shade of large trees, and make a fine undergrowth where scarcely 

 anything except itself and ivy will live. 



The large-leaved evergreen shrubs should be the stronghold of the suburban 

 gardener for his foreground and highly-dressed scenes. The Holly, the Aucuba, the 

 Box, the Euonymus, the Chinese and Japanese Privets, the common Evergreen Oak 

 {Qtiercus ilex), and Skimmia japouica, are the best evergreens for town amongst 

 thousands. We say nothing of the Common Laurel, because it does not like town 

 air, and because we suppose no one would plant it except as a screen in a suburban 

 garden, and for that purpose it is good enough. But as laurels are in pretty 

 good favour, we name the best sort for the townsman — it is Cerasus colchicus^ 

 with longer and more pointed leaves than the common laurel, somewhat hardier 

 too, and a tree that lives in many a place where the commoa laurel dies. We 

 have a splendid specimen of this tree trained to a wall, which is literally shaved all 

 the year round by a draught of wind as keen as a razor, and the roots of the tree 

 are in a gravel path v/hich is trodden at all hours and all seasons ; yet it is always 

 in perfect health. 



One of the most common failures of suburban gardeners is the grass plot, whe- 

 ther in the entrance court or in the garden proper. A good deal of labour is wasted 

 in scratching the surface and sowing seed, which might be bestowed with far better 

 result by means of an annual dressing of manure applied in February, March, or 

 April. Nothing like stable-dung three parts rotten, spread all over two inches thick ; 

 but the material may be scarce, or its appearance may be objected to. The next best 

 dressing is Lawson's phospho-guano, sprinkled thick enough just to cover the 

 ground like a film. The next best is nitrate of potash, and the next best nitrate 

 of soda. Almost any worn-out lawn may be cured by such medicines as these ; 

 but if renewal is essential, then we say get good turf from some spot near at hand. 

 Don't, if you can help it, send to the country for it; foi', strange to say, country 

 turf does not last long in town. The sowing of grass seed in suburban gardens 

 is an absurd proceeding, except in the case of a very open plot, where building 

 is going on, and then it is likely the turf will be formed by the time the house 

 is built ; at all events the builders, if they trample and smash the young grass, 

 will give it plenty of time to make itself, for they always take exactly twice as 

 long to biiild a house as the term agreed on in tlie first instance. 



On the semicircular grass plots to entrance courts we usually see a lot of standard 

 roses in a deplorable condition. We must take the liberty of saying that we rejoice 

 in observing that standard roses so situated are always a disgrace to the place, 

 because it is execrable taste that places them there. What business has any tree 

 on a grass plot in an entrance court, when it is like a mop in outline, and 

 leafless and flowerless six months out of the year? One Irish yew or juniper is 

 worth fifty standard roses any day for such a purpose. However, everyone to his 

 taste ; our business is more particularly with the horticultural part of the subject, 

 and we have to say that standard roses do not thrive satisfactorily in any garden 

 near a great city. The lover of roses, whose lot is cast amongst houses, should 

 avoid them until he has ascertained by observation that his atmosphere and soil 

 will suit them. If a townsman xoill have standard roses, let him buy a fresh 

 lot every alternate year — that is to say, plant them and let them stand two 

 whole summers, and then plant a fresh lot. What you are to do with the old 



