268 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



aqulfolium, and Darwinii, tlie tree-box and 

 noble Buxus Balearica, the berry-bearing 

 Cotoneaster, the evergreen Cratoegus, the 

 glossy Euonymus japonica, the common 

 green holly, the liolly-leaved oak, and the 

 stately lauristinas, are all adaptable to 

 City life. Where they perish, it will not 

 be through the impurity of the air, but 

 through the miserable plan of planting in 

 the first instance ; for it is too often the 

 case, that in planting trees and shrubs in 

 the City, it is thought quite sufficient to 

 open a "hole, jam the roots into it, and then 

 tread the soil over till it is as hard as a 

 brickbat. 



Unfortunately, in all English towns, 

 there is a prejudice against trees. The only 

 popular thought respecting them is, tliat 

 they ought to be cut down ; though it is 

 rarely that any one can assign a respectable 

 reason why. Even in the suburbs of Lon- 

 don, where green things are appreciated as 

 the proper beautifiers of human life, and 

 necessary adjuncts to the culture of do- 

 mestic virtues, there is a malevolent spirit 

 too often exhibited in the ruthless destruc- 

 tion of trees tliat never harmed anybody, 

 but have blessed saccessive generations 

 with their " shady boon" and summer 

 rustling, and incessantly acted as purifiers 

 of the heavenly breezes that had been cor- 

 rupted by coal smoke. Rarely do we hear 

 a word in their defence ; still more rarely 

 a word of encouragement as to their im- 

 provement; never a suggestion that a few 

 more might be planted for purposes of de- 

 coration, and to warm up the cold, stony 

 outlines of our great highways. A little 

 litter in autumn, which a broom would re- 

 move, is thought a sufficient reason for de- 

 stroying at one blow the growth of a cen- 

 tury, fhe paltry complaint of some bald- 

 headed churchwarden, or old inhabitant, 

 that the tree at the corner shuts out the 

 light of the gas-lamp, and renders him 

 liable to be murdered at his own door, is 

 enough to procure a doom for it ; and, 

 where wholesale destruction is not encou- 

 raged, the jobbing gardeners are ever han- 

 ke'ring to use the saw and the bill, to ren- 

 der the trees in suburban gardens unsightly 

 spectres and stunted scrubs. Pity the sor- 

 rows of a poor old tree, whose trembling 

 limbs make shadow at your door; and in- 

 culcate in the minds of this generation a 



better regard for trees, as proper furniture 

 for open spaces in the City. 



When the senseless prejudice against 

 trees has been annihilated by arguments 

 founded on their beauty and use, we are 

 next assailed with the assertion that to 

 grow trees in the City is impossible. The 

 excessive drainage necessary for tlie public 

 health does certainly suck out of the soil 

 the moisture that large trees require; the 

 daily diffusion of coal smoke and commer- 

 cial dust is certainly detrimental to vege- 

 table life; but these are reasons for encou- 

 raging the growth of trees, not for sweeping 

 away tlie few that remain, and refusing to 

 plant more. The utter dryness of the soil, 

 and the contamination of the atmosphere, 

 are evils which operate to the prejudice of 

 the public health, and every living tree is 

 an agency for mitigating those evils ; the 

 leaves of the tree disseminate a wholesome 

 moisture, and they abstract from the air 

 mucli of its mechanical and chemical im- 

 purities, so that the sad circumstances that 

 ai-e made an excuse for sweeping vege- 

 tation beyond civic boundaries, oft'er most- 

 cogent reasons for its more plentiful distri- 

 bution and encouragement. But these 

 quasi-philosopiiicalargumentsagainst Lon- 

 don trees are to be classed with the silly 

 prejudices against trees because of an oc- 

 casional sprinkling of dead leaves and in- 

 tercejjtion of tlie light from somebody's 

 gateway. We go into the country to re- 

 gain our health. We hurry into the midst 

 of verdure to obtain physical refreshment 

 from the great brewery of oxygen, which 

 a merciful Providence has established in 

 connection with the growth of the fruits of 

 the earth ; and, while the lungs absorb the 

 life-giving gases poured out abundantly 

 from the tissues of plants, the mind and 

 heart rejoice in the pictures of beauty which 

 vegetable forms present to us in exhaustless 

 variety. Yet we return to our mural dens, 

 and give orders to cut down trees, that not 

 a green leaf may wave between us and 

 the sun while we sign dockets and count 

 money. The dirty, neglected, sour condi- 

 tion of the little plots of open ground in 

 the City would indicate that vegetation in 

 a town had some poisonous influences, or 

 else that money-getting had extinguished 

 the most active of human sympathies, and 

 j established a new code of public asceticism. 



