CLIPPED HEDGE-HOWS. 171 



and are highly aromatic, but differ essentially from the 

 Sassafras in their odor. The berries have been used as 

 spice for culinary purposes. 



CLIPPED HEDGE-HOWS. 



No art connected with gardening has been so generally 

 ridiculed in modern times as the topiary art, or that of 

 vegetable sculpture. It is certainly not worthy of de- 

 fence ; and yet it seems to me quite as rational to cut 

 out a figure in box or yew, as to shear the branches of a 

 hedge-row to reduce it to architectural proportions. I 

 cannot see why vegetable architecture is any more rational 

 than vegetable sculpture. I cannot see why those persons 

 who admire a clipped hedge-row should object to an 

 " Adam and Eve in yew," or a " Green Dragon in box," 

 nor why those who are willing to torture a row of shrub- 

 bery by this Procrustean operation should not be pleased 

 with a "Noah's Ark in holly," or an "old maid-of- 

 honor in wormwood," as described in Pope's satire. Of 

 the two operations, I consider the one that still main- 

 tains its ground in popular taste the most senseless. " An 

 old maid-of-honor in wormwood" would at least have 

 the merit of being ridiculous ; but a clipped hedge-row is 

 simply execrable, without affording any amusement 



