158 The Garden. 



The exhortation, " Plant trees! plant trees!" which has gone 

 forth of late, and been so often reiterated, has not fallen upon 

 heedless ears. Thousands have obeyed it, and tens of thou- 

 sands stand ready, and only wait to be told what trees to plant, 

 and how to plant them. 



For planting trees, we have already given such general direc- 

 tions as the limits of our work would permit. With a careful 

 attention to the fundamentlu principles set forth in the first and 

 second chapters, these directions will be found sufficient. It 

 remains for us to add a few hints on arrangement, etc., and to 

 give lists of the most desirable species for common use, as 

 ornamental and shade trees and shrubs. 



As a border for a straight road or street, we must, of neces- 

 sity, have a straight row of trees, if any ; but in laying out the 

 road or street, simple utility, and not beauty, was the end in 

 view. In laying out ornamental grounds, straight lines and a 

 geometrical arrangement of objects must be avoided ; and any 

 necessary straight line, like a boundary fence, should be wholly 

 or partially hidden, and its effect neutralized, by curving rows 

 and irregular groups of trees and shrubs. 



This principle applies to the smallest village plot as well as 

 to the extensive park. Something may be done in arrangement 

 and grouping to produce a pleasing and beautiful or picturesque 

 effect, in a very limited space. To tell the reader how, in 

 detail, would require a volume. The hint we have just dropped 

 will at least lead him to think and inquire. His own taste, 

 once awakened, will do the rest. 



Do not, we beg of you, distort and deform your ornamental 

 trees by trimming. If any accident or unnatural condition 

 may have caused a tree to grow into an ungraceful and unnat- 

 ural shape, you may, by a judicious use of the pruning-kuife, 

 aid it to return to its natural form ; but you can not improve a 

 fi-ee-growing and symmetrical tree. If it put out branches near 

 the ground, do not, by any means, remove them. Therein 

 consists much of the beauty of many of our handsomest trees, 

 especially the evergreens. 



