232 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



winter makes much difference to them, even winters that brown the 

 evergreen Oak. We have collected within the past two hundred years 

 evergreen trees from all parts of the northern world, but it is doubtful 

 if any of them are better than the common Yew, which when old is 

 often picturesque, and which lives for over a thousand years. Of this 

 great tree we have many varieties, but none of them quite so good as 

 the wild kind when old. In the garden little thought is given to it,, 

 and it is crowded among shrubs, or in graveyards, where the roots are 

 cut by digging, so that one seldom sees it in its true character when old, 

 which is very beautiful. The Golden Yew is a variety of it, and there 

 are other forms, one of which, the Irish form, is well known, and too 

 much used. 



After the Yew, the best of our evergreen shrubs is the Holly, 

 which in no other country attains the beauty it does in our own; 

 certainly no evergreen brought over the sea is so 

 The Holly. valuable not only in its native form, often attaining 

 40- ft. even on the hills, but in the varieties raised 

 from it, many of them being the best of all variegated shrubs in their 

 silver and gold variegation ; in fruit, too, it is the most beautiful of 

 evergreens. Not merely as a garden tree is it precious, but as a most 

 delightful shelter around fields for stock in paddocks and places 

 which want shelter. A big wreath of old undipped Holly on the 

 cold sides of fields is the best protection, and a grove of Holly 

 north of any garden ground is the best evergreen we can plant for 

 shelter ; the only thing we have to fear being rabbits, which when 

 numerous make Holly difficult to establish by barking the newly- 

 planted trees, and in hard winters even barking and killing many 

 old trees. As to the garden, we may make beautiful evergreen 

 gardens of the forms of Holly alone. 



Notwithstanding the many conifers brought from other countries 

 within the past few generations, as regards beauty it is very doubtful 

 if more than one or two equal our native Fir. In any case few things 

 in our country are more picturesque than old groups and groves of the 

 Scotch Fir; few indeed of the conifers we treasure from other 

 countries will ever give us anything so good as its ruddy stems and 

 frost-proof crests. 



The best of evergreen climbers is our native Ivy, and the many 



beautiful forms that have arisen from it. This in our woods arranges 



its own beautiful effects, but in gardens it might 



Native Ivy. be made more use of, and no other evergreen 



climber comes near it in value. The form most 



commonly planted in gardens the Irish Ivy is not so graceful as 



some others, and there are many forms varying even in colour. 



These for edgings, banks, screens covering old trees, and summer- 



