314 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



shrubs than near flower beds, and it enables us to make graceful 

 edgings near and under trees. Like the Box, it may also be used 

 as a bold hedge-like garland to frame a little garden or other spot 

 which we wish to separate from the surrounding ground. The. Tree 

 Ivy is best for this, but the common Ivy, if planted as an edging in 

 any open place, will in time assume the shrubby or tree form, and 

 make a handsome and bold garland. Where, for any reason, we 

 desire Ivy edgings, it is better not to slavishly follow the French way 

 of always using the Irish Ivy for edgings. The dark masses of this in 

 the public gardens of London, Paris, and also in the German cities 

 are very wearisome, and help to obscure rather than demonstrate the 

 value of the Ivy as the best of all climbers of the northern w^orld. 

 The common Ivy, of which the Irish form is a variety, is a plant of 

 wide distribution throughout Europe, North Africa, and Asia, and 

 varies very much in form. There being in Britain over fifty cul- 

 tivated forms of it, it is in England that it is best known. The Irish 

 variety seems to have taken the fancy of continental European 

 gardeners, and is much more cultivated than any other but many 

 of the other varieties less known are more graceful and varied in 

 form, and even colour, some of them having in winter a bronzy hue, 

 instead of the dark look of the Irish Ivy. Some, too, are fine in 

 form, from the great Amoor and Algerian Ivies to the little cut- 

 leaved Ivy. Even the common Ivy of our woods is prettier than the 

 one so much used. 



Among the bold edgings one sees enclosing the " careless " and 

 broad borders of Spanish or Algerian or other southern gardens, over- 

 shaded by orange or other fruit trees, is the Rosemary, clipped into 

 square topped bushy edges, about 15 ins. high. Though tender in 

 many parts with us, it may be used in the same way on warm soils 

 and in mild districts, and the Lavender may be used in the same 

 way, though in its case it is best not to clip it, and there is a dwarf 

 form, which is best for edgings to bold borders. 



Dwarf Evergreen Edgings. — Among various dwarf evergreen 

 shrubs which may be used as edgings are the dwarf Cotoneasters, 

 Periwinkles, smaller Vacciniums, Partridge Berry, the alpine forest 

 Heath and some of the smaller kinds of our native Heaths, varying 

 them after the nature of the soil and the kind of plants or shrubs we 

 are arranging ; heaths and shrubs of a like nature being best for 

 association with peat-loving evergreen shrubs, though they need not 

 all be confined to these or to such soils. Such evergreen edgings of 

 low shrubs are often very useful where we plant masses of select ever- 

 green flowering shrubs, and they may be used in free belts or groups 

 as well as in hard set lines, the last being in many cases a sure way 

 to mar the effect of otherwise good planting in pleasure grounds. 



