SHRUBS AND TREES. 



115 



Fig. 26. 



part below, and if one side of the 

 hedge is towards the north, that side 

 will be deficient in sunlight also. 

 A form where the top is as broad 

 as the bottom is therefore bad. Be- 

 sides, a flat top with vertical sides 

 is a clumsy form, and even were it 

 not liable to lose its foliage at the bottom, would not be desirable. 

 It is difficult to keep a full and healthy growth at the base of such 

 hedges after the first five years of their growth, though the hem- 

 lock and arbor-vit£es are more manageable in this respect than 

 many other hedge-plants. The best form for a hedge is the pyra- 

 midal, as in Fig. 25. This has the benefit of an equal distribution 

 of light from all directions on the two sides of the hedge. It is 

 also the simplest form to make and keep in order ; and is recom- 

 mended for evergreen hedges or screens in ordinary exposures. 

 But the thin sharp points at the top, and at the bottom on each 

 side, are much more liable to injury, and thus mar the continuity 

 of the hedge lines, than the rounded form of Fig. 23. This 

 objection may be remedied by cutting off the top so as to 

 leave a thickness of about six inches of level surface there, and 

 the same of vertical surface at the sides, as in the section Fig. 26. 

 And as a graceful concave surface is prettier than a straight 

 one, the sides above may be hollowed slightly, as shown in 

 the same cut. This form tends to give strength and density of 

 foliage to the bottom of the hedge, by exposing it more fully to 

 the light from above. Fig. 27 shows the same principle applied 

 to a iall hedge-screen, such as may be made with the Norway 

 spruce. Very perfect high hedges may be made with this tree in 

 the simple cone form with less labor than the form indicated by 

 Fig. 27 will require, but the latter is the best in principle, as well as 

 the most beautiful. The different lights and shadows which fall on 

 contiguous curved surfaces, or different planes, may be studied with 

 good effect in forming hedges. Fig. 28 is a very pretty and prac- 

 ticable form which we suggest for those who are willing to take 

 the trouble to perfect it. 



Where one side of a hedge has a northern exposure, or is much 



