SHRUBS AND TREES. 



121 



natural that the privet should long have been a favorite for garden 

 hedges. The wax-leaved privet, Ligustnun lucidum, and the Cali- 

 fornia privet, Z. californica, are shrubs of larger and* more glossy 

 foliage, and probably hardy in most parts of the country. The 

 lilacs, bush honeysuckles, syringas, altheas, weigelias, and some 

 wild roses, may all be grown as hedges with pleasing effect where de- 

 ciduous plants are used. In short, good hedges are much more the 

 result of the patience and persistent care of the gardener than of the 

 natural tendencies of certain shrubs or trees. 



Verdant Arches and Bowers. — In 

 Chapter VI some allusion was made to the 

 pretty effect of verdant gateway arches. 

 There is no limit to the charming variety of 

 effects that can be produced by training 

 and pruning trees and large shrubs, both 

 evergreen and deciduous, into fanciful 

 forms for gateway and garden arches, 

 verdant pavilions, and bowers. As ever- 

 greens are most constantly beautiful for 

 such purposes, we will first call attention to 

 a few forms in which they may be used. 

 The hemlock can be treated as illustrated 

 by Figs. 31, 32, and 33, which we here re- 

 peat. The first represents two hemlocks 

 which have been planted two feet away from, 

 and on each side of an ordinary gateway. 

 After five or six years' growth they may be 

 high enough to begin work upon. A crotch- 

 ed stick about two feet shorter than the dis- 

 tance of the trees apart, is stretched from one 

 to another, from six to seven feet from the ground, and fixed there 

 to keep the tops apart up to that point. Above the stick, the tops 

 (supposing that they are tall enough to admit of it) are to be bent 

 towards each other until they join, then twisted together, and tied 

 so that they cannot untwist. To do this so as to form a graceful 

 arch, the trees must be about eleven or twelve feet high. After 



