TAXUS. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



TECOMA. 



743 



the home landscape, the fresh green of 

 the leaves being a welcome gain. 

 There is a pendulous form, but any 

 other so-called varieties are better 

 let alone. Secure healthy young plants 

 from seed only. 



TAXUS (Yew). This, one of the 

 most beautiful of evergreen trees, has 

 long been used in our flower gardens, 

 clipped and distorted in what is called 

 " topiary " work. Evelyn is said to 

 have introduced the practice with the 

 Yew, but probably it originated with 

 very old gardens, in which the Yew 

 tree stood by the door. In such a 

 case clipping was necessary, but in 

 modern gardens clipping of a less 

 profitable kind is often resorted to, 

 so that the Yew is seldom seen in its 

 stately grace. Its misuse is evident 

 in many of the great gardens of the 

 world, such as Versailles, where nothing 

 is more ugly than the Yews cut hard 

 against the skyline, many of them 

 distorted, diseased, and ugly from 

 constant clipping for years. The best 

 reason for Yew in gardens is its shel- 

 tering value. To put this vigorous 

 forest tree into beds in a flower garden, 

 and then clip it into various shapes, 

 all ugly, is folly as to design and bad 

 gardening, too. But with our modern 

 stores of evergreens from many lands, 

 the Yew is not our only garden shelter, 

 and when we use it, let it be as far from 

 our flowers as may be, for it is a vora- 

 cious feeder, and a never-ending 

 struggle with the roots has to go on. 

 The effect of a background counts 

 with some, and rightly ; but in our 

 days other fine evergreens give us 

 good backgrounds, if we use them 

 well the Laurel, best of evergreens 

 (miscalled in our land the Bay), the 

 finest hardy Rhododendrons on their 

 own roots (i.e., from layers always), the 

 graceful American trees like the Mon- 

 terey and other Cypresses that require 

 no clipping, and are far more lovely 

 without the garden barber's attentions, 

 and, best of all, our native Holly, the 

 queen of evergreens. In previous 

 editions of this book I included a 

 number of varieties of the common 

 Yew a large number in some nur- 

 series which I have left out of the 

 present edition, having never in my 

 life seen any among those varieties at 

 all comparable, for vigour, or grace, or 

 any good quality, with our native 

 Cedar. 



The Golden and variegated Yews 

 form striking groups of colour, but are 



better held together in bold picturesque 

 groups than dotted at regular intervals 

 a practice fatal to artistic effect. 

 The Irish Yew, a plant of striking form, 

 has been over-used by those who do 

 not consider the effect of things on the 

 landscape. I have seen houses with 

 Irish Yews in all directions destroying 

 the good effect of other and far more 

 beautiful trees, and the variety that 

 should exist in every English garden. 



TCHIHATCHEWIA. A beautiful 

 alpine plant, T. isatidea, native of 

 Asia Minor, it is hardy and thrives on 



Tchihatchewia isatidea. 



the rock garden. From a tuft of 

 spathulate oblong leaves, formed in 

 the first year, appear the flowers in 

 the second season ; the leaves are 

 dark green, thickly covered with shin- 

 ing silky hairs, amongst which rise the 

 flower-stalks, showing Syringa-like 

 bright rosy-lilac flowers, fragrant like 

 vanilla. 



TECOMA ( Trumpet Creeper] . 

 Handsome and distinct climbing shrub 

 of much beauty of habit as well as of 

 flower. They are not so often seen 

 in our country as abroad, although 

 well fitted for the southern and warmer 

 parts, and in the case of one species 

 and its varieties, hardy, and flowering 



