x.] SWEET VERBENA VIRGINIAN VINE 109 



CHAPTER X 



SHRUBS AND AUTUMN TINTS 



WHEN planting our lawns we should think not only 

 of the special flowering habits of our favourite ornamental 

 trees, but should give some attention also to the frequently 

 overlooked effects of their bright and varied autumnal 

 colouring. We should try and introduce into our gardens 

 some of the strange charms which we enjoy in a winter's 

 walk through country lanes, or plantations of Oak or 

 Beech, where the woods and hedgerows are ablaze with 

 the many hues of life and death, and where the lichens 

 and stems of trees afford an endless variety of delicately 

 graduated colour. 



In our damp climate artists must look in vain for the 

 cheerful influences, for the warmth of colouring with 

 which an Indian summer satisfies Canadian painters ; 

 and yet if gardeners would only group their trees and 

 shrubs with some special regard to their autumnal effects, 

 one additional charm, and that by no means the least 

 important, might be added to many a well-designed lawn. 



The bare walls of some ungainly houses might easily 

 be covered with Ampelopsis, the Virginian Vine, which 

 in autumn is a vision of glory, and the old-fashioned 

 Pyracanthas, trained to cover a basement story, should 

 be bright with sprays of crimson berries from September 

 to Christmas. 



