THE SHRUBBERY 95 



As a small boy he was passionately fond of the 

 scent of Syringa ; and one day he thrust his 

 head into a bush and drank in the fragrance, 

 till it suddenly turned into a nauseating stench ; 

 so that from that moment his horror of it was 

 as great as his former enjoyment ; and never, 

 as he would tell us, did he forget that sharp 

 reminder that one might have too much of a 

 good thing. 



What is a garden without Laburnum the 

 " Golden Rain"? And Guelder Roses, how 

 precious they are in the shrubbery, with their 

 pure balls of snow in Spring and their re- 

 splendent foliage in Autumn. Viburnum 

 plicatum, the Japanese Snowball, is so hand- 

 some a shrub that it ought to be grown as a 

 specimen ; while V. opulus, with its red berries, 

 and V. sterilis, the ordinary Guelder Rose, will 

 quickly run to ten or twelve feet in height, 

 brightening up the sombre evergreens during 

 many months with flower and foliage. Five 

 years ago I planted a group of shrubs some 

 five feet apart in the grass at the corner of the 

 lawn, to break the wind. Half-a-dozen good 



