Introduction^ etc. 31 



Among conifers we find many subjects of the 

 most exquisite grace, and of a beautiful free and 

 pointed habit, which it is most desirable we should 

 have associated with vegetation more distinguished 

 for brilliancy than grace. They are in many cases 

 as elegantly chiselled and 'dissected as the finest 

 fern, and it is difficult to find more beautiful masses 

 of verdure than such plants as Retinospora plumosa 

 and R. obtusa display when well developed ; they 

 are simply invaluable for those who use them with 

 taste. Apart altogether from our want of a more 

 elegantly diversified surface in the flower-garden 

 the best and most practical way to meet which is 

 by the use of such plants as these and neat and 

 elegant young specimens of such things as Thu- 

 jopsis borealis there is, in many British gardens, 

 a great gulf between the larger tree and shrub 

 vegetation and the humbler colouring material, 

 which most will admit should be filled up, and 

 there is nothing more suitable for it than the many 

 graceful conifers we now possess. Much as conifers 

 are grown with us, how few people have any idea of 

 their great value as ornamental plants for the very 

 choicest position in a garden ! We are sometimes 

 too apt to put them in what is called their " proper 

 place," or, at all events, too far from the seat of 



