THE 



JOUKNAL OF RURAL ART AM) RURAL TASTE. 



Vol. II. 



MAY, 1848. 



No. 11. 



•' What is the reason," said an intelli- 

 gent European horticulturist to us lately, 

 " that the Americans employ so few ever- 

 greens in their ornamental plantations ? 

 Abroad, they are the trees most sought 

 after, most highly prized, and most valued 

 in landscape gardening ; and that, too, in 

 countries where the winters are compara- 

 tively mild and short. Here, in the north- 

 ern United States, where this season is both 

 long and severe, and where you have, in 

 your forests, the finest evergreens, they are 

 only sparingly introduced into lawns or 

 pleasure grounds." 



Our friend is right. There is a lamenta- 

 ble poverty of evergreens in the grounds of 

 many country places in this country. Our 

 plantations are mostly deciduous; and while 

 there are thousands of persons who plant, in 

 the country, such trashy trees (chiefly fit for 

 towns,) as the ailanthus, there is not one 

 planter in an hundred but contents him- 

 self with a few fir trees, as the sole re- 

 presentatives of the grand and rich foliaged 

 family of evergreens. 



They forget that, as summer dies, ever- 

 greens form the richest back-ground to the 

 kaleidescope colouring of the changing au- 

 tumn leaves ; that in winter, they rob the 

 chilly frost-king of his sternest terrors ; that 

 VOL. 11. 62 



in spring, the)- give a southern and verdant 

 character to the landscape in the first sunny 

 day, when not even the earliest poplar or 

 willow has burst its buds. 



More than this, — to look at the useful as 

 well as the picturesque, they are the body 

 guards — the grenadiers — the outworks and 

 fortifications — which properly defend the 

 house and grounds from the cold winds, and 

 the driving storms, that sweep pitilessly over 

 unprotected places in many parts of the 

 country. Well grown belts of evergreens — 

 pines and firs, which 



■' ill conic forms arise, 



And ■with a pointed spear divide the skies," 



have, in their congregated strength, a pow- 

 er of shelter and protection that no inexpe- 

 rienced person can possibly understand, 

 without actual experience and the evi- 

 dence of his own senses. Many a place, 

 almost uninhabitable from the rude blasts of 

 wind that sweep over it, has been rendered 

 comparatively calm and sheltered ; many a 

 garden, so exposed that the cultivation of 

 tendev trees and plants was almost impos- 

 sible, has been rendered mild and genial in 

 its climate by the growth of a close shelter, 

 composed of masses and groups of ever- 

 green trees. 



Compared with England, — that country 



