SHRUBBERY AND SHRUBS 173 



trying his utmost to entertain and be enter- 

 tained in a fashionable drawing-room. It is no 

 derogation of either the man, the drawing-room, 

 or its other occupants that his efforts are unsuc- 

 cessful and that his growing self-consciousness 

 makes them more rather than less so. Similarly 

 with the rhododendron; no finer or more beau- 

 tiful plant exists than it, in its proper environ- 

 ment — which is the half shade of open woods — 

 but away from this environment its actual 

 beauties are diminished, and what remain are 

 so obscured by its awkwardness and obvious 

 consciousness of being out of place, that they 

 hardly count. 



So as a first rule in the use of this particular 

 shrub let us say that it shall never be placed 

 against or even very close to a building, unless 

 that building is situated actually in a wood and 

 all the conditions around it are naturally wild 

 or duplicate the wild completely. I do not 

 deny that now and then there are to be found 

 instances of its use in the midst of small conifers 

 against a building where its awkwardness is not 

 so in evidence; but these are rare, and not, 

 moreover, permanent, since the conifers will 

 crowd in against the shrub in time and need 

 thinning, or the whole will need replanting. 



Further, there are so many things better than 



