326 



CONIFEROUS TREES ADAPTED TO ENGLISH GARDENS. 



IHE collecting and cultivating of choice coniferous trees is 

 as much, a passion with many as the collecting of 

 orchids, or geraniums, or ferns. Such remarks as are 

 now to be offered will he of no use to the possessors of 

 places like Elvaston, or Dropmore, or Bicton ; but they 

 may be of use to the proprietors of smaller places who delight in 

 pines and spruces, but have not space to, allow of their full develop- 

 ment of gigantic growth for which some of the most noble are 

 celebrated. Possibly many who are not to be classed among 

 amateurs with limited purses, might be advised for their good on 

 the subject. We do occasionally see magnificent properties dis- 

 figured by starved firs that have been planted in anticipation of 

 affording notable embellishments, but which, being in a soil ill 

 suited to their nature, dwindle year after year till they become bare 

 poles surmounted with wretched tufts of black or rusty leafage, like 

 gigantic mops that have been used to sweep the tall chimneys cf a 

 factory, and have been stuck in the ground, there to remain till 

 wanted again for the same ignoble purpose. I have seen such 

 lamentable sights many a time, and have been compelled to regret 

 that for lack of a little knowledge and judgment in the first instance, 

 some of the best features of a fine property have been degraded to 

 an arborieultural burlesque. Small gardens are often subject to 

 mistakes of another kind. The trees planted perhaps do well — in 

 one sense too ivell, for they grow out of bounds, and the giants rear 

 their lofty heads, in outrageous disproportion to the things around 

 them, -while they exclude the sunshine with their vast masses of 

 sombre foliage, they kill everything beneath and around them, and 

 spread an air of gloom and an atmosphere almost poisonous in a 

 place which should be light, cheerful, beautiful, and healthy. Let 

 not the love of trees ever lead to the exclusion of the light of 

 heaven, or a stoppage of the flow of the healthy breezes ; when such 

 becomes the case, horticulture, or whatever name the art of so doing 

 things should bear, becomes a curse instead of a blessing ; and to 

 live on a wild heath in the midst of furze and broom would be far 

 preferable to being so buried alive in a miniature black forest. I 

 have never walked a mile in any district occupied with houses of the 

 villa stamp, and especially in old suburban districts, but I have 

 passed houses that are effectually screened from observation, from 

 dust, from fresh air and sunshine, by some overgrown cedar or yew, 

 or other dark sombre tree, originally planted too near the windows, 

 and now occupied solely in making the inmates so wretched that the 

 death it is hastening them to can scarcely have any terrors. Such 

 examples should serve as warnings to those who plant trees. The 

 pretty little cedar looks so nice at some ten or twenty feet from the 

 windows, and for a time it can do no harm. But the day will come 

 when it will brush against the walls, thrust the tips of its long 

 boughs in at the windows, and greedily eat up all the air and light 



