NEIGHBORING IMPROVEMENTS. 67 



nolias, catalpas, paulonia, mulberries, and ailanthus, with some 

 evergreens of rounded forms, will make an interesting collection. 



We have here named a dozen places, with each a specialty. 

 Now, it is to be clearly understood that the nature of the locality, 

 the form of the ground, the peculiarities of the soil, and the archi- 

 tecture of the house, are all to be taken into consideration before 

 deciding what species of planting to make the specialty of any one 

 home. It would be ridiculous to plant weeping willows on a dry, 

 bald site, or gloomy balsam firs on a sunny slope, or a collection of 

 spiry evergreens alone on a level lawn, or in juxtaposition with 

 masses of round-headed trees, like maples and horse-chestnuts. 

 All the surrounding circumstances must govern the choice; and 

 neighbors should consult together with competent advisers, as far 

 as practicable, before determining what each will plant, so as to 

 make contiguous grounds harmonize, as well as add to the variety 

 of each other's grounds. 



To be repeating the same round of common favorite trees in 

 one place after another, on a fine suburban street, is to lose much 

 of the varied beauty which would result from each planter making 

 thorough work in some one specialty of arboriculture. To employ 

 an artist in landscape gardening to design all the places that adjoin 

 each other, with reference to a distinctive characteristic for each, 

 and a happy blending of the beauty of all, would, of course, be the 

 most certain way to secure satisfactory results. It will be found, as 

 we grow more intelligent in such matters, that it is quite as essen- 

 tial to the beauty of our home-grounds to commit their general 

 arrangement to professional artists, and to be as absolutely re- 

 stricted to their plans, as it has been in the management of ceme- 

 teries. So long as each lot-owner can plant and form his lot to 

 suit himself alone, whatever his taste may be, such grounds will be 

 but a medley of deformities. To insure a high order of beauty in 

 neighboring improvements, all planting must be done under some 

 one competent direction. The result of this is seen in our beauti- 

 ful modern cemeteries. A similar subordination of individual fan- 

 cies to a general plan, in a community of neighboring grounds, 

 may develop like results. 



