1869.] CONIFEROUS TREES IN SHRUBBERIES. G3 



duced at once by an admixture of fine young Coniferous trees with low-growing 

 evergreen and deciduous shrubs ; but if the preservation of a thick undergrowth, 

 either as a screen or for shelter, is considered an object in future years, none but 

 the more delicate and smaller-growing sorts should be introduced. There 

 are plenty of such varieties, suitable in every way for effect, which it is easy to 

 keep within reasonable bounds ; but such strong-growing sorts as the Deodar and 

 Cedar of Lebanon, Pinus insignis, Abies Douglasii, Picea Nordmanniana, and 

 others, of which the Silver Fir is the type — in fact, all those kinds which under 

 favourable circumstances are likely to grow into timber, should either be planted 

 in groups and as single specimens in parks, or as single specimens on extensive 

 lawns ; or, if considered indispensable for the sake of ultimate effect, in shrub- 

 beries, or belts, or screens, they should be confined entirely to the background, 

 and never brought so prominently forward as to interfere with the well-doing 

 of the undergrowth, in those cases where the maintenance of that undergrowth 

 is indispensable in future years. I am quite aware that they are so very beautiful 

 in their young state, that the temptation to use them for the production of im- 

 mediate effect in shrubberies, as a contrast, is almost irresistible ; but, in one way 

 or another, they entail so much disappointment in after years, that unless planted 

 with an ultimate object, they should be entirely rejected from such prominent 

 situations. If brought within a near view from the windows of the mansion, they 

 will not be many years in growing into nuisances, as interfering with more 

 distant views ; so that just when they are becoming noble specimens, they must 

 be removed, oi\ they will eventually kill everything around them. Many of us 

 know this to be almost heart-breaking work ; and it proves the position with 

 which I set out, namely, that very great caution should be exercised in choosing 

 the sites for such trees, in the first instance. 



I think a few words may be said in favour of those who planted trees such as 

 those I have mentioned forty years ago, or thereabouts, as most of them were then 

 so rare and valuable, that it is no wonder they were placed in the choicest situa- 

 tions on lawns, and even in mixed flower-beds, where they could be constantly 

 under the eye of the proprietor, no thought being then given as to the future 

 effect ; but now their adaptability to the climate and their strong-growing 

 habits are so well known, that such mistakes ought not to occur. 



The evil of planting such trees in mixed shrubberies designed to be perma- 

 nent screens is very great, for eventually, as they increase in growth, the roots take 

 such wide and extensive ramifications, that they suck up all the nourishment from 

 the surrounding soil, so that the shrubs cannot hold their own. It may well be 

 conceived that this evil increases annually, so that the undergrowth gradually 

 dwindles away, and eventually dies. This state of things is often sought to be 

 remedied by grubbing up the old stumps, and trenching and enriching the soil* 

 and then replanting ; but this is a fine thing for the Conifers, the roots of which 

 seize upon the new soil with the greatest avidity, and in the course of a couple 



