142 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



ism, they are wrong, because they are unnatural. 

 But this is not to say that trees or shrubs should never 

 be clipped. Their treatment must depend upon the 

 uses to which they are put; and this is the funda- 

 mental principle of all good garden design. If a plant 

 is used as an ornament in the garden, then it should 

 be allowed to grow to its fullest natural beauty. But, 

 if it is grown for use, then it should be treated in any 

 way that will make it more useful. Thus, if May- 

 trees are grown for ornament, they should be allowed 

 to grow freely, and not be clipped into any artificial 

 shape, since no artificial shape can be so beautiful 

 as the natural form of the tree. But, if they are used 

 as a hedge, they should be clipped to make them serve 

 their purpose. There is no make-believe in a hedge. 

 It is, what it professes to be, a vegetable wall or en- 

 closure, and there is no reason whatever why living 

 vegetables should not be used for such a purpose as 

 much as dead vegetables or as minerals. Also, there 

 is no reason, of course, why trees of all kinds should 

 not be cut back to enhance the beauty of their natural 

 growth and blossom, or to prevent them from grow- 

 ing where they are not wanted. The only rule about 

 clipping trees or shrubs is that it should always be 

 done not as unnatural ornament, but for some good 

 practical reason, and when the reason is obvious the 

 clipped tree very seldom looks ugly, and often has a 

 peculiar charm of its own, because it gives evidence 

 of human care and pains intelligently applied. Thus 

 a clipped yew pleases us in a narrow cottage garden, 



