SHRUBBEET, 



294 



SHRUBBERY, 



year and removing all the herba- 

 ceous plants that have not sufficient 

 room and air and light to grow and 

 flower freely. The bulbs may be 

 left as long as tliey -ndll grow ; 

 because as they have but little 

 foliage, and that foliage is produced 

 early and soon dies off, they are, 

 under no circumstances, so dis- 

 agreeable in theii- appearance as 

 ill-grown common j^erennials. The 

 Roses should be removed whenever 

 they cease to flower vigorously ; and 

 all the other shrubs should be 

 thinned out when their branches 

 begin to interfere with one another. 

 Where the shrubbery is twenty or 

 thirty feet wide, every shrub should 

 be kept separate from every other 

 shi'ub, so as to be clothed with 

 branches from the ground upwards ; 

 or the shrubs should be encouraged 

 to grow in groups of different sizes, 

 each group being kept more or less 

 distinct from every other group. 

 It may be thought that this mode 

 of keeping the single plants and 

 the groups distinct, will prevent the 

 shrubbery from serving as a screen ; 

 but this is a mistake ; because 

 though the jflants, by being placed 

 alternatelj", will admit the eye of 

 the spectator on the walk to see in 

 among them, which in passing along 

 a walk adds greatly to the variety 

 of its effect, yet this very circum- 

 stance will prevent the eye from 

 passing the boundary. Any person 

 may prove this by drawing circles 

 representing the shrubs or groups 

 on paper to a scale ; and supposing 

 the strip of plantation to be thirty 

 feet in width, and the circles some 

 of them to be five feet in diameter, 

 and some of them ten feet. The 

 style of planting and thinning so 

 as to keep each plant distinct, and 

 always about to touch but never 

 actually touching those around it, 

 is what Mr. Loudon called the gar- 



den esque treatment of .shnibberies 

 and plantations ; and the style of 

 grouping is called the picturesque 

 mode of planting and management. 

 These remarks may be considered as 

 directions for making the most of a 

 shrubbery already planted in the 

 common manner ; and, in so far as 

 thinning is considered, they will 

 equally apply to the mode of plant- 

 ing which is now about to be 

 described. 



Planting shrubberies so as to pro- 

 duce variety in the aspect of the 

 l^lantation is to be effected by one 

 mode only, and that is to cause 

 one kind of tree or shrub always to 

 prevail in one place. In extensive 

 shnibberies this will require several 

 plants of the same species or variety 

 to be placed together ; but it occa- 

 sions no additional expense ; be- 

 cause, in a common shrubbery at 

 least, the same number of plants of 

 one species would be planted, the 

 only difference being that they 

 would be placed in different parts 

 of the plantation. In a small 

 shrubbery perhaps not more than 

 one or two plants of a species or 

 variety might be required ; more 

 especially if the object were to 

 include as extensive a collection in 

 the shrubbery as could conveniently 

 be procured. There are almost a 

 thousand trees and shrubs, exclusive 

 of Ptoses, in British nurseries, which 

 may be purchased at moderate 

 prices ; and all these may be used 

 in a shrubbery which contains no 

 more ground than a single acre. 

 Supposing that only one plant of a 

 kind is planted, and supposing that 

 each genus or natural order is kept 

 by itself, every part of the sui-face 

 of the plantation will be different 

 from that which precedes or follows 

 it ; and the greatest variety which 

 the case admits of will be jDroduced. 

 So many plants planted on one acre 



