BOUNDARY TREATMENTS 63 



cause I accord it first place as a garden bound- 

 ary, by any means; but because it is so gener- 

 ally useful and so generally possible. It requires, 

 of course, to make it wholly effective as a pro- 

 tection, the reinforcement which a fence alone 

 will give, although if it is properly established 

 at the time of planting and properly cared for 

 thereafter, it is possible to develop it into an 

 impenetrable mass of close-set branches right 

 down to the ground. And of course nothing 

 short of this approaches the true ideal for a 

 hedge. 



Perhaps no plant has ever had the vogue for 

 hedge purpose which the California privet en- 

 joys, and no plant has ever more deserved its 

 popularity. It is not because it is cheap, either, 

 that it is popular, though this of course partly 

 accounts for the wide use of it. But its great 

 adaptability to all sorts of places and all but the 

 extremely cold sections of the country, its rapid 

 growth, and the beautiful wall of living green 

 which it presents when rightly attended, play 

 quite as large a part in its popularity as its low 

 price. And even when it is killed out in a winter 

 of unusual severity — as much of it was during 

 the unprecedented winter of 1919-20 — it comes 

 again from its roots, if cut back properly, and 

 renews itself within an astonishingly short time. 



