EVERGREEN TREES AND SHRUBS. 237 



ing a finely coloured kind which may often be desirable. It is also 

 very probable that we shall, as various regions of the northern world 

 are opened up, introduce to cultivation other fine wild species, and get 

 precious races from them, so for many reasons the sooner we get out 

 of the common routine of the nurseries in grafting every fine kind we 

 already have on R. ponticum, the better. And if this plan be wrong 

 with the varieties, what are we to say to grafting any of the fine wild 

 species that come to us on the same Pontic kind kept in every nursery 

 for the purpose ? For however vigorous the growth at first, the stock 

 is sure to get its head in the end, and then good-bye to the precious 

 natural species it has borne for no sound reason. 



Apart from trees of poor forms, there are others which are 

 stately in their own country but a doubtful gain to ours, like the 



Wellingtonia and other Californian trees and 



Greater evergreen the Chili Pine. Sometimes the foregrounds of 



trees. even fine old houses are marred by such trees, 



and unfortunately people use them in the idea 

 that they are by their use doing something old-fashioned and 

 " Elizabethan," whereas they are marring the beauty of the land- 

 scape and of our native trees, often so fine, beyond the bounds of 

 the garden. We ought not to spoil the beauty of our home 

 landscapes by using such things, which are so abundant in many 

 places that the nobler exotic evergreen trees like the evergreen 

 Oak are forgotten. This European tree from Holkham in Norfolk 

 to the west of England and in many gardens round the coasts 

 of our islands, is a great evergreen tree and a fine background 

 and shelter. 



This is perhaps the finest evergreen tree ever brought to our 

 country and as hardy as our own trees. If we use evergreen trees 



they ought to be the noblest and hardiest. The 

 Cedar of Lebanon, loss of this tree by storms could not happen to 



anything like the same extent if people went on 

 planting young trees. The many catalogues issued, help towards 

 the neglect of the really precious trees by bringing out novelties 

 from all parts of the world absolutely unproved trees ; whilst the 

 planting of such grand trees as the Cedar of Lebanon and the Ilex 

 of Europe are often forgotten. A mistake made in Cedar planting is 

 that of only planting isolated trees with great branches on all 

 sides, an enormous surface exposed to strong wind. In their own 

 country, where Cedars are naturally massed together, although the 

 gales are severe, the trees are not destroyed by wind in anything 

 like the same degree. The Cedar of Lebanon is beautiful in the 

 " specimen " way, but it is at least equally beautiful massed in groups. 

 In their own countries, in addition to being massed and grouped 



