8TYLK AND EXPRESSION IN CKUTAIN THKES AND SllUUnS. 



known durable character of its timber. Another capital feature belongs to it : the 

 power of its leader to resist frost or cutting winds. No person, on first observing its 

 t-fraooful ;uul delicato-looking leader, growing so late in the autumn, could suppose 

 that it could remain unscathed through a severe winter. It is, moreover, the most 

 manageable Fir I have seen, as to habit ; it would be easy to keep it in a dwarf 

 state for many years. It is thus adapted to rook-work, or otlior rustic affairs, where 

 pendent forms are employed. Next, the regal-looking Araucaria — a tree for palaces. 

 Cryptomeria, too, and the Douglas I'ine ; and then the genera Cephalotaxus, Liboce- 

 drus, Juniperus, Taxodiuin, Cupressus, &c. What a rich group! Any painter who, 

 by anticipation, could produce a landscape on canvas, such as will be obtained in 

 Britain in some twenty or thirty years hence by the use of these fine things, would 

 porha])S give a greater impulse to planting than all the advertising of the tradesmen. 



The selection of trees and shrubs possessing autumnal tints is by no means an 

 unimportant part of the planter's business. "When the gloom of winter threatens — 

 when the aspect of our gardens becomes totally changed by the general decadence of 

 the floral tribes — then the bounteous hand of Providence, by a gracious compensa- 

 tion, " lights up " the woodland, the grove, and the shrubbery, by those delightfully 

 various and ever-changing tints wliicli all who can appreciate the beauties of the land- 

 scape so much admire. 



This is a numerous section, and any one who would watch and carefully classify 

 them would do planters a real service. I may just observe, that the most glorious 

 tints I am acquainted with are those of the Liquidamber, the old yellow Azalea, and 

 I am tempted to add, although somewhat out of place, the true West's St. Peter's 

 vine. The Oak family are not poor in these things ; the old Merry tree is sometimes 

 beautifully tinted ; so is the Corylus atropurpureus, the Ilippocastanum, and a host of 

 others, including pure yellows, as the Tulip tree, &c. To these may be added, for 

 their rich tints, our colored-stemmed shrubs, as some of the Dogwoods. The berried 

 race may also be glanced at. Foremost, the old Holly, associated in the mind with 

 the Christmas festivities of centuries, and outdoors second to none in the richness of 

 its embellishments, or as shelter, whether in the shrubbery, the field, the park, or the 

 forest. Next, the sombre Yew, with its funereal associations, combining raassiveness, 

 durability, and hardihood ; the Arbutus, Juniper, Leycesteria, Snowberry, Ivy, Mahonia, 

 the Garrya, Euonymus, &c. 



The variegated section is by no means meagre or inapt for decorative purposes. 

 Materials also for rock-work, or for imj^arting a wilderness character, uudergrowths 

 and climbers ; and lastly, as a consideration worthy the close attention of every one 

 engaged in ornamental gardening, our very early spring flowering shrubs or trees, and 

 our very late ones. 



Among the former, I would point to the old snowy Mespilus, the Almond, Ribes, 

 the Corchorus, Chimonanthus, Cydonia japonica, Mezereon, Cornelian Cherry, Weigelia, 

 Forsythia, &c. Among the latter, the old AlthiTa frutex. Erica herbacea, Clethra, 

 Arbutus, Escallonias, Laurustine ; and lastly, the old Glastonbury Thorn, of legend 

 fame — and difticult it is to know whether to class this with the old year or the 



