AND GROUNDS. 167 



by annuals graded in size in the same manner as above indicated 

 for a bed of cannas. The circular border of cultivated ground be- 

 tween the dining-room bay-window and the hemlock border may 

 also be filled with annuals, graded from those that grow only a few 

 inches high next the grass, to an outer circle made with flowering 

 plants from four to six feet high. Bed 7 is intended for an assort- 

 ment of geraniums. At 8 is a good place for the pendulous silver- 

 fir ; and at 9 for Sargent's hemlock, Abies canadensis inverta, trained 

 to a straight stick, and kept small by pruning. 



On a line with the side-walls of the house, and twenty feet in 

 front, two sycamore maples are designated. We do not intend to 

 recommend this variety as any better or more beautiful than the 

 sugar, red-bud, or Norway maples, or than the horse-chestnut, but 

 it represents a type of trees with formal outlines, and rich masses 

 of foliage, which are appropriate for such places ; — unless the style 

 of the house is picturesque ; in which case elms, birches, and other 

 loose growing trees would be more appropriate. The centre group 

 of evergreens is mostly jcomposed of common and well-known 

 sorts, the points being representations of the arbor-vitee family, 

 and the centre of the taller hemlocks. Lawson's cypress is still a 

 rare tree, and its hardiness is doubtful north of Philadelphia. 

 Where it may not be safely used, a full-foliaged specimen of the 

 Norway spruce may be substituted. South of New York, near 

 the sea-coast, we would also substitute the Glypfo-strobus sinensis 

 pendula for the arbor-vitae plicata. While these trees are small 

 they will appear insignificant in so large a bed ; but we advise no 

 one to trust himself to plant trees more thickly than they should 

 eventually grow, on the plea that when they crowd each other a 

 part may be removed ; for however sound the theory, it is rarely 

 carried out in practice. Besides, no trees are so beautiful as those 

 which have an unchecked expansion from the beginning ; and this 

 is especially the case with evergreens, some of which never recover 

 from the malformations produced by being crowded during the 

 first ten or fifteen years of their growth. Therefore, let the open 

 spaces between the permanent trees, in the beds which are out- 

 lined for cultivation, be filled during their minority with showy 

 annuals or bedding plants ; — taking care not to plant so near to 



