WAYSIDE SHRUBBERY. 83 



a few leaves on the outside, should be preferred to a 

 beautiful growth of wildings, cherished upon a natural 

 sod, is no less wonderful than the "mystery of godli- 

 ness." As ornaments to the landscape, shrubs are of no 

 secondary importance. While trees afford grandeur to the 

 distant prospect, the beauty of a near prospect is greatly 

 dependent on shrubbery. A rocky and uneven surface, 

 covered by trees alone, would not affect the mind with so 

 many agreeable impressions as when combined with their 

 undergrowth. When we are journeying, the wild shrubs 

 that skirt the waysides, and hang their foliage, fruit, and 

 flowers over the walls and fences, add a beauty and in- 

 terest to the scenes of our journey not equalled in any 

 respect by the cultivated exotics in the spaded lands of 

 gardens in our suburban towns. In some -foreign coun- 

 tries the superstitions of the people cause them to pre- 

 serve many of these things which are so valuable in ways 

 but little understood. It is the misfortune of our land, 

 that these conservative superstitions which we have re- 

 jected are not supplanted by philosophy. In place of it 

 we discover only a barren infidelity to Nature, and a 

 sceptical disregard of her benevolent laws. 



The growth of spontaneous shrubbery by the sides of 

 the less frequented roads, and in all those situations 

 where it does not interfere with needful operations, is 

 one of the chief blessings of nature. It is profitable for 

 shade and for shelter, and affords constant pleasure to the 

 sight. Especially on the borders of rustic by-ways it 

 covers the nakedness of the stone wall with foliage and 

 flowers, and produces an abundance of wild fruit for 

 children and birds. Tons of whortleberries would be 

 produced every summer by rustic waysides and the bor- 

 ders of fields, if the sordid land-owner did not destroy the 

 bushes that yield them. I cannot see that a growth of 

 this kind close to the fences would diminish the space that 



