TREES AND SHRUBS 



CHAPTER I 

 WANT OF VARIETY A BLEMISH 



THERE is a sad want of variety amongst evergreen 

 and deciduous shrubs in the average English garden. 

 Faith is placed in a few shrubs with a reputation for 

 robbing the soil of its goodness and making a mono- 

 tonous ugly green bank, neither pleasant to look at 

 nor of any protective value. As one who knows 

 shrubs well and the way to group them says, " Even 

 the landscape gardeners, the men who have the 

 making of gardens with, of course, notable excep- 

 tions do not seem to know the rich storehouse to 

 draw from." Very true is this. We see evidence 

 of it every day. The mixed shrubbery is fondly 

 clung to as a place for all shrubs, whether flowering 

 or otherwise, and the result is a thicket of growths, 

 a case indeed of a survival of the fittest. There 

 are other shrubs than Privet in this fair world of 

 ours, and as for providing shelter, the wind whistles 

 through its bare stems and creates a draught good 

 for neither man, beast, nor plant. Of the cherry 

 laurel again there is far too much in gardens. 



A 



