Boundaries 75 



may be. There is seldom anything better for a small place than 

 a hedge. Whether it shall be evergreen or deciduous depends 

 upon the amount which is appropriated for its cost — have the 

 former if possible. Whether it shall be formally clipped or left 

 to grow in natural, informal abandon should depend upon the 

 style of the house and the place generally. 



Nature offers the best possible model for boundary planting on 

 a larger scale. Observe her treatment of any irresponsible water- 

 course where some truant brooklet loiters and hurries alternately 

 on its way ; or of an old roadside where she is left undisturbed, or 

 along an old fence or roughly piled stone wall. 



Look first at the form — the general shape — of the mass of 

 wild growth. Its irregular skyline will impress eyes that are 

 opened to it at once, likewise its varying width upon the ground — 

 here thick and dense, there sparse and thin. This irregularity 

 and the varying form are more important than its color or than 

 the variety of plants composing it, for the picturesque charm 

 which distinguishes it is almost entirely owing to these. 



Then note that the direction of such a boundary changes, 

 even though it may follow a generally straight line, and that the 

 comers are never sharply turned. And finally, record carefully 

 the fact that Nature uses lavishly one or two kinds of plant and 

 allows only a fugitive specimen here and there of others, half 

 hidden among them. A soHtary umbel of flaming bunchberry 

 which once caught my eye from beneath a mass of sumach and 

 elder, along a meadow boundary near a patch of old woods, 

 always recurs to me in this connection. 



Who but Nature — imless possibly a Japanese — ever composed 

 with such cunning simplicity? Fifty bimchberries would have 

 made more show — but how much less of an impression! 



Even where space will permit a border planting varying from 



