DEPARTMENT II. Ornamental. 



No matter how grand an object may be, the eye tires of sameness. This is exempli- 

 fied in the fact that rural people have a mania for " moving into town," and town's peo- 

 ple long for the pure air and charming scenes of country life. Ornamental planting is 

 not particularly desirable around town or city residences, for, as a rule, there is an over- 

 balancing of the artificial in urban surroundings. This is one reason why, in the city, 

 with so much stiffness and lack of a variety of real, living objects, people sigh for rural 

 scenery, strive to procure fine shade trees and make "pets" of horses and other animals. 

 The proper thing to do, is to so build and so apply the landscape art as to blend the 



Photo 120. 



natural and artificial. In cities, ornament planting should not be overdone. In rural dis- 

 tricts it may be adopted liberally with splendid effect and an enhancement of real estate 

 value. In England, Scotland and many other parts of the old world, the historic yew 

 has been freely planted for ornamental purposes. But this is a slow-growing tree and 

 lives to a great age. You probably have seen the photographs of many of these vener- 

 able and majestic beauties. It is well to plant the yew, but the average American does 

 not take to the idea of setting a tree that will mature five hundred years from now. The 

 American is the man of the ";/0a'/" At any rate, he does not care to wait but a few- 

 years to see the result of his labor. That being the case, we give you a few examples of 

 quick-grozL'ing plants that can be used for ornamental work. 

 57 



