AND GROUNDS. 143 



variegated-leaved small plants or shrubs on the border in front of 

 them. The group beyond, projecting towards the house, is sup- 

 posed to be composed of a variety of the best arbor-vitaes broken 

 in color by some of the dark yews, the little out-lying member of 

 the group to be the Irish juniper. 



It is impracticable to trace through all the details. The reader 

 must observe that the very small shrubs which are indicated 

 in isolated positions on the lawn are intended for very com- 

 pact evergreen or other shrubs, which take up but little room and 

 are pleasing objects at all seasons of the year. At the four outer 

 corners of the two bays may be planted, in pairs, specimens of the 

 Irish and Swedish junipers, or some of the slender yews. At the 

 corner of the open space in front of the carriage-house is a horse- 

 block, to be shaded by a white pine. Nearly in front of the side 

 entrance to the house is a rosary, for which may be substituted 

 with good effect a Bhotan pine, with a cut-leaved weeping birch 

 close behind it, if the proprietor does not wish to make and keep 

 up the rose-bed with the expense and care which it annually re- 

 quires. If the birch just named has been selected for the tree 

 near the corners of the front veranda, it need not be repeated. 



These grounds, with no other plantings than are indicated, 

 would doubtless look bare for some years. The places which the 

 trees and shrubs are ultimately to cover, must be filled, in the in- 

 tervening time, with annuals and bedding-plants which will make 

 the best substitutes for them. We would decidedly advise not to 

 plant trees or large shrubs any nearer together than they ought to 

 be when full grown, on the tempting plea that when they crowd 

 each other some of them may be removed. Nine persons out of 

 ten will not have the nerve to remove the surplusage so soon as it 

 ought to be done, and when they do see the unsightly result of a 

 crowded plantation, there will be one good excuse for not doing it, 

 viz. : that trees which have grown up together have mis-shaped 

 each other, so that when one is cut away those that remain show 

 one-sided, and naked in parts. It is better to have patience while 

 little trees slowly rise to the size we would have them ; and, while 

 watching and waiting on them, let the ground they are eventually 

 to cover be made bright with ephemeral flowers and shrubs. When 



