THE FLORAL WORLD AXD GARDEX^ GUIDE. 309 



where in this grand family ai-e to be seen evidences of this, and 

 never have we looked upon more beautiful masses of verdure than 

 such plants as Retinospora plumosa and obtusa when well deve- 

 loped ; they are simply invaluable for those who use them with taste. 

 Apart altogether from our want of a more elegantly diversified sur- 

 face in the flower garden, the best and most pi-actical way to meet 

 which is by the use of such plants as these, aud neat and elegant 

 young specimens of such things as Thujopsis borealis, the recurved 

 Yucca, etc., there is in many British gardens a great gulf between 

 the larger tree and shrub vegetation, and the humbler colouring 

 material which most will admit should be filled up, and there is 

 nothing known more suitable for it than these. It were bettei* to 

 see additions to the dwarf and elegant group of conifers than almost 

 any other, inasmuch as they are so eminently fitted to meet a great 

 want of the present day — a more diversified and verdant kind of 

 aspect among the dwarfer inmates of flower gardens. 



Much as conifers are grown with us, how few people have any 

 idea of their great value as ornamental plants for the very choicest 

 position in a garden. We are sometimes too apt to put them in 

 what is called their " proper place " — or, at all events, too far from 

 the seat of interest to thoroughly enjoy them in winter, when the 

 beauty of their form and their exquisite verdure are best seen. If 

 the dwarfer and choicer conifers were tastefully disposed in and 

 immediately around a flower garden, not altogether spoiled by a 

 profusion of beds for masses of colour, that flower garden could 

 hardly fail to look as well in winter as in summer ; in fact, we have 

 seen places where, from rather close association of the more elegant 

 types, the best kind of winter garden we have ever seen was made. 

 In truth, our eflbrts must tend to prevent a desert-like aspect at any 

 time of the year ; and to this end nothing can help us more than a 

 judicious selection of conifers. Almost every beauty of form is 

 theirs. They are of permanent dignity and interest, always occupy- 

 ing the ground and embellishing it — displaying distinct tints of 

 the ever-grateful green in spring and summer, waving majestically 

 before the gusts of autumn, and tellingly beautiful when bearing 

 on their deepest green the snows of winter. 



"We will ofl'er two selections, one for the surroundings of the flower 

 garden, say the pleasure ground, more or less removed from the 

 centre of interest ; the other for the closer association with our 

 ordinary race of flower-garden plants, and, in fact, for any suitable 

 position in flower gardens, no matter whether natural or geome- 

 trical, for terrace or for the selectest spots in the pleasure grounds. 

 "We will commence with the last, as the more important class : — 



CUOICE DWAEF AXD ELEGANT CONIFERS. 

 Abies Pygraoca Biota orientalis variegata aurea 



Arthrotaxus cupressoides (selaginoides) 



„ laxifolia (Donniana) 



Biota cupressiforrais 



„ nana 



„ orientalis elegantissima 



Cephalotaxus drupacea 

 Ciiamsecyparis sphajroidca variegata 



„ „ viridis 



Cryptomeria elegans 

 Cupressus Lawsoniana 



