64 The Landscape Gardening Book 



brought to any desired height and will stand shearing into any 

 form. Its impenetrable soft, thick, beautiful green is lovely 

 enough to need no excuse foi- being. 



When a screen has to be situated near at hand this is impor- 

 tant. Indeed mider such circumstances it is well to present it, 

 itself, as a feature, frankly drawing and centering attention 

 upon it, instead of attempting to make it unobtrusive and xm- 

 noticed. Such an attempt is bound to fail when the distance 

 is short ; and the irritating suspicion of what may be beyond 

 which constantly recurs when the vision is intercepted by a 

 group that, of itself, is not interesting enough to distract at- 

 tention, is something to be avoided if possible. It is a subterfuge 

 to feature the screen, but a perfectly excusable one. 



Coiuitless ways to make such a barrier itself of special inter- 

 est will suggest themselves, according to a situation. With a 

 hemlock hedge, if the hedge itself is not enough, a semi-formal 

 treatment is excellent. A pedestaled faun or a row of them, 

 placed before it at intervals of ten to fifteen feet and gleaming 

 white against the green, will never grow wearisome. Or if 

 these are too ambitious for the rest of the place, substitute a 

 sun-dial, an urn, or a garden seat, with a flanking pair of small 

 pyramidal boxwood or juniper trees, or a pair of flowering 



shrubs. 



Ramblers or pillar roses, gathered up and tied to a straight 

 young sapHng, take up very little room; and grown this way 

 they are marvelously effective, lending themselves especially 

 to cramped quarters. Simpler than anything else would be a 

 row of these to form columns of bloom against the hemlock's 

 dark green. A selection of several varieties will give a long 

 period of bloom. 



Privet grows much faster than hemlock and costs a great deal 



