OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



what may be done with it under fairer condi- 

 tions of growth. 



And this mention of the laurel family (I 

 like that old popular naming of these shrubs) 

 reminds me of the screens and coppices which 

 greet the eye so often in English gardens and 

 in English landscape. It is quite possible that 

 with our climate, we can never equal their va- 

 riety. The Bay, the Spanish laurel, the Lau- 

 restina, will very likely be fastidious in ad- 

 justing themselves to our winters. But with 

 our narrow-leaved laurel, our Lati folia, our 

 Rhododendrons, we can pile up a wealth of 

 glossy green against the northern sides of our 

 gardens, which even the best British farmers 

 might envy. Add to these our spruces (hem- 

 lock and others), our white pine (Strobus), 

 for background, and we have nothing to covet. 



But if we have nothing to covet, we have 

 very much to learn in the adjustment of our 

 leafy screens. Over and over I observe some 

 ambitious gentleman (at the hands of his gar- 

 dener) attempting to establish a protective 

 coppice, and after careful and expensive prep- 

 aration of the ground (there is nothing lack- 

 ing on that score), placing his rare evergreens 

 where they will be presently overgrown and 

 lost, or putting out his Rhododendrons where 



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