IX.] SELECTION CULTURE GROUPING PRUNING 101 



ments of form are inexcusable in each case. There are 

 those, for example, who find it very difficult to feel 

 at home in a garden where the Yews and Hollies are 

 closely shaven, after the manner of a well-kept box edging, 

 or with a carefully whitewashed wall as background. 

 And yet such things -are not seldom seen, and they 

 prepare one for further developments that will afterwards 

 cause no surprise. 



In planting shrubs it is well to place them rather 

 close at first, and as they grow, to thin out by trans- 

 planting them into other positions. Some things look 

 best in groups, others standing alone ; a thicket of 

 Laurestinus or of Laurels, for example, kept well pruned 

 in, serves as an excellent screen or background, while 

 Aucubas are much more effective growing apart. If the 

 knife be judiciously used, an Aucuba always forms a 

 graceful plant ; the foliage is rich and varied, and the 

 large and highly-coloured berries, which now grow so 

 abundantly on the female plant, render the bushes all 

 the more attractive. So that they may bear these berries 

 freely it is necessary to have a few male plants growing 

 in their neighbourhood. 



In almost all the older grass gardens and lawns there 

 are numbers of ancient evergreens, such as the common 

 and variegated Hollies, Portugal Laurels, Phyllereas and 

 Laurestinuses, for the most part over-grown, unwieldy 

 objects, which render the planting of new shrubs 

 impossible. 



A number of these may be often taken away root 



