THE SHRUBBERY. 



The Shrubbery is generally employed as a link connecting the Flower Garden, 

 Kitchen Garden, and Forest, or wooded scenery, by a belt, or massive screen, 

 on one or both sides of the principal walk, affording shelter, and often as a 

 means by which to mask out unsightly objects. But this should not be the 

 only object of a Shrubbery : it should be also considered and managed with 

 a view to display the shrubs in their variety and true character, and with 

 the greatest interest. We often meet with the most beautiful shrubs, either 

 struggling for existence beneath a brawny tree, or, (if I may use the expres- 

 sion), gasping for air, amid a confined and suffocating mass of the more 

 common or wilder growing kinds, instead of being managed according to their 

 habits, and so placed as not only to afford them ample room, but to exhibit 

 their true form and beauty. In order to effect this properly, the permanent 

 plants, or such as are the most interesting, should be first placed in the 

 compartment prepared for them, at such a distance from each other as they 

 may be expected eventually to require, beginning with the smaller kinds 

 nearest to the front, and going backward in rotational size, finishing with 

 the large kinds. Then, amongst the whole, common kinds, as nurse plants, 

 should be put in, for the pui"pose of producing an immediate effect, but 

 with a view to their removal as the more valuable sorts advance in growth. 

 Such removals, where proper space can be afforded, present opportunities for 

 increasing or varying the lawn, which may not, in the first instance, have been 

 sufficiently attended to ; and thereby some of the more interesting plants may 

 be brought carelessly to bound the additional lawn, or, in other words, by 

 sodding up to them, made to bound it. And here I would mention, that 

 although limitation may sometimes compel the designer only to introduce a 

 narrow belt, or verge, of grass between the walks and shrubs, yet it should 

 never be less than two feet in width ; which may always be preserved if the 

 the gardener would only use the grass shears generally, and the edging-iron 



