CHAPTER XXVII. 



EVERGREEN TREES AND SHRUBS. 



" Oh the oak and the ash and the bonny ivy tree, 

 They flourish at home in my own country." Old Ballad. 



THE above lines might be worth thinking of by those bent on 

 planting evergreens, as if it were borne in mind that the ever- 

 greens we plant have to face winters in an Oak and Ash land, 

 we should have less of rampant but not hardy evergreens which 

 perish in numbers after hard winters. 



There are no background hues prettier than those afforded by some 

 evergreens like the Yew, Box, and Ilex ; but their use requires 

 care ; we may have too many of them, and they should not take 

 the place of flowering shrubs and flowers of many kinds. It is 

 outside the flower garden that evergreens are most useful, and in a 

 cold country like ours, especially on the eastern coasts and in wind- 

 swept districts, Holly banks and hedges of other hardy evergreens 

 are often a necessity. In our country we have the privilege of 

 growing more evergreen shrubs and trees than continental countries, 

 species resisting winter here which have not the slightest chance 

 of doing so in Central Europe. 



Into our brown and frozen northern woods come a few adventurers 



from southern lands that do not lose their green in winter but take 



a deeper verdure Ivy, Holly, and Yew enduring 



Native evergreens, all but the very hardest frosts that visit our isles, 



some bright with berries as well as verdure giving 



welcome shelter to northern and wind-swept gardens, and in our own 



time each varying into many noble varieties. These native evergreens 



and their varieties are, and for ever must be, the most precious of all 



for the British Isles. 



When after a very hard winter we see the evergreen trees of 

 the garden in mourning, and many of them dead, as happens to 

 Laurels, Laurustinuses, and often even the Bay, it is a good time to 

 consider the hardiness and other good qualities of our British ever- 

 greens and the many forms raised from them. If we are fortunate 

 enough to have old Yew trees near us, we do not find that a hard 



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