1886.] PRUNING EVERGREENS. 551 



in the early part of the season ; but having been left, there should be 

 no hesitation in cutting it back before the commencement of another 

 season of growth. We certainly have not improved much in our 

 time in the matter of pruning evergreens. We do not, it is true, 

 cut and curve any that are amenable to that treatment into the 

 forms of peacock's griffins, and so forth : tliat barbarity has been 

 cast away ; but then we have not, on the otlier hand, taken up any 

 progressive course. 



I hold that ornamental shrubberies should be regularly and 

 systematically gone over witli the knife and pruned. The peculiar 

 character and habit of each sort ought to be carefully studied and 

 preserved, not obliterated ; but the true l)alance and symmetry of 

 each individual should he maintained. In many of our most 

 handsome evergreen shrubs and trees this is not difficult to do. 

 The holly rhododendron, the various forms of cupressus and kindred 

 conifer£e, and many others, want but little attention in regard to 

 pruning. Their habit of growth is naturally symmetrical while 

 young. For many years all they may require will be watchfulness 

 to prevent their becoming lobsided by the growth of extra luxuriant 

 side shoots or the development of competing leaders or central shoots. 

 The npper part of such trees and shrubs as form the bulk of 

 ornamental plantations are apt through neglect of a little timely 

 pruning to extend so rapidly as to overbear and rot the lower 

 ])ortions, which are eventually overshadowed and die from want of 

 light and sheer debility. This is particularly the case with hollies 

 which are permitted to run upwards, and by and by getting beyond 

 convenient reach their upper branches assume the form of trees, and 

 are left with a feeling somewhat akin to despair to grow as they 

 list. In a few years the lower branches die away, and it is then 

 discovered that what might long ago have been prevented has become 

 irretrievable. The hollies themselves, never designed by nature to 

 become naked stemmed trees in full exposure to sun and air, ere long 

 resent this treatment or rather want of treatment, and show every 

 sign of weakness and decrepitude. The stem becomes bark-bound, 

 the top dies away limb by limb, and the only remedy for the general 

 unsightliness is to cut them over close to the ground and allow them 

 to spring from the 1)ase, which tliey readily do if not too much 

 debilitated, in which case they should be grubbed up and the ground 

 replanted. It is futile to attempt to establish anything underneath 

 1 lollies, which have been permitted to run away in the manner 

 described, in the hope of furnishing the ground line with foliage. 

 Scarcely anything will live and nothing thrive under a canopy of 

 holly, though it is one of the best underwood plants itself. 



Cupressus, Thujas, Iictinosporas, and all similar coniferte, have a 



