SPECIAL METHODS OF PLANTING 87 



These little trees make ideal subjects when suitably 

 placed, though I fear they are too often inserted into 

 the positions they occupy largely because there 

 happens to be a vacancy in that place. It has always 

 seemed to me that they are so valuable both from 

 the decorative line they give, and from their ever- 

 green character, that considerable care and thought 

 should be given as to just where they should go. 



Another point which often strikes me in this con- 

 nection, is, that in most cases these little trees are 

 planted and then left , severely alone, which usually 

 results in their making a more or less solid head, some- 

 what after the shape of a bee-hive. It seems to me that 

 their employment in the rock garden should be to 

 simulate as far as possible, on a small scale, the 

 mature trees of the mountains. 



Owing probably to their dwarf habit of growth, and 

 the sheltered positions they generally occupy in our 

 gardens, when they are left entirely alone, they are 

 apt to grow dense and crowded, and so lose those 

 characteristic lines which are noticeable in an old 

 weather-beaten tree. 



How extremely picturesque are those trees we often 

 see in the mountains, clinging to some projecting crag 

 and throwing out their comparatively few wind-driven 

 branches, in the most delightful way. If we could only 

 induce our dwarf conifers to grow somewhat after the 



