390 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



large proportion of the townspeople own their gardens or small 

 holdings, and there enjoy Sundays and holidays. 



Even here the well-to-do city man often spends the week-end in 

 a country home, which adds not a little to the amenity of the 

 district he frequents. But what makes the difference so marked 

 between life in a Continental and a British city is the exodus — in 

 the one case, on high days and holidays, of so many inhabitants to 

 the country, where they are absorbed in healthy and civilising pur- 

 suits ; and, in the other, the aimless, shiftless drifting of the 

 crowds which throng our pavements when the inhabitants are 

 without their daily toil. The Scottish people are comparatively 

 well off as regards holidays — what they lack is opportunity for 

 making good use of them ; whilst as to the beautifying of our 

 towns, which have been built on a series of sites that cannot be 

 surpassed, the inhabitants have themselves added little by planting 

 or by gardening to enhance the beauty of the natural scenery. 



After I began this paper I wrote to Professor Bayley Balfour, 

 asking him his opinion as to the varieties of plants and trees 

 which could be employed for urban decoration. Professor Balfour 

 good-naturedly sent me an ample list, which, coming as it did 

 from so high an authority, I asked leave to send in for publica- 

 tion. With his kind consent I send his letter, with its most 

 valuable list of trees and shrubs found hardy at the Boyal Botanic 

 Garden, Edinburgh, to the Editor of the Transactions, as the 

 most practical contribution that could be made to the subject. 



Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, 

 Wth November 1901. 



Dear Munro Ferguson, — You ask me a large question, and I 

 shall perhaps best answer you by telling you of some of the trees 

 and shrubs that do well in the Garden here, although I do not 

 know that the conditions are exactly those of a town ; perhaps 

 they are rapidly approaching them. 



I am quite satisfied that we are far too shy in our planting of 

 shrubs and trees in and about towns. Many more would thrive 

 were they only cultivated. 



I shall go systematically through the natural orders. 



Ranunculace^e. — Clematis. Many of these do extremely well. 

 C. alpiria, Jlammula, montana, orientalis, virginiana, and so on, 

 are all good climbers, and thrive beautifully with us. 



