WALKS AND EDGINGS. 



215 



graceful edgings near and under trees. Like the Box, it may also 

 be used as a bold hedge-like garland to frame a little garden or 

 other spot which we wish to separate from the surrounding ground. 

 The Tree Ivy is best for this, but the common Ivy, if planted as 

 an edging in any open place, will in time assume the shrubby or 

 tree form, and make a handsome and bold garland. Where, for 

 any reason, we desire Ivy edgings, it is better not to slavishly 

 follow the French way of always using the Irish Ivy for edgings. 

 The dark masses of this in the public gardens of London, Paris, 

 and German cities are very wearisome, and help to obscure rather 

 than demonstrate the value of the Ivy as the best of all climbers 

 of the northern world. The common Ivy, of which the Irish form 

 is a variety, is a plant of wide distribution throughout Europe, 

 North Africa, and Asia, and varies very much in form, there being 

 in Britain over fifty cultivated forms of it. The Irish variety seems 

 to have taken the fancy of continental European gardeners, and is 

 much more cultivated by them than any other, but many of the 

 other varieties though less known are more graceful and varied in 

 form, and even colour, some of them having in winter a bronzy 

 hue, instead of the dark look of the Irish Ivy. Some, too, are fine 

 in form, from the great Amoor and Algerian Ivies to the little 

 cut-leaved Ivy. Even the common Ivy of our woods is prettier 

 than the one so much used. 



Among the bold edging one sees enclosing the " careless " and 

 broad borders of Spanish or Algerian or other southern gardens, 

 over-shaded by orange or other fruit trees, is the Rosemary, clipped 

 into square topped bushy edges, about 1 5 inches high. Though tender 

 in many parts with us, it may be used in the same way on warm 

 soils and in mild districts, and the Lavender may be used in the 

 same way, though in its case it is best not to clip it, and there is a 

 dwarf form, which is best for edgings to bold borders. 



Among various evergreen shrubs which may be used as edgings 

 are the dwarf Cotoneasters, Periwinkles, smaller Vacciniums, Partridge 

 Berry, the alpine forest Heath, and some of the 

 Dwarf evergreen smaller kinds of our native Heaths, varying them 

 edgings. after the nature of the soil and the kind of plants 



or shrubs we are arranging ; Heaths and shrubs 

 of a like nature being best for association with peat-loving ever- 

 green shrubs, though they need not all be confined to these or to 

 such soils. Such evergreen edgings of low shrubs are often very 

 useful where we plant masses of select evergreen flowering shrubs, 

 and they may be used in free belts or groups as well as in hard 

 set lines, the last being in many cases a sure way to mar the effect 

 of otherwise good planting in pleasure grounds. 



