330 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



must look for the charm of the Pine, but rather in storm-tossed head 

 and often naked stems ; and hence all these ridiculous forms should 

 be excluded from gardens of any pretence to beauty. 



Another most unfortunate tree in this way, as helping to fill out 

 gardens with graceless things, is the western Arbor vitae (Thuja 

 occidentalis). This, which is a very hardy tree but never a dignified 

 one, even where it grows in the north about Lake Superior and 

 through the Canadas, is, unhappily, also hardy in our gardens, and 

 we may see in one catalogue no less than twenty-three forms of 

 this tree all dignified with Latin names. There are plenty of beautiful 

 things, new and old, worthy of the name, without filling our gardens 

 with such monstrosities, many of which are variegated. Of all ugly 

 things, nothing is worse than the variegated Conifer, which usually 

 perishes as soon as its variegated parts die, the half dead tree often 

 seeming a bush full of wisps of hay. 



EVERGREEN WEEDS. In many once well-planted pleasure 

 grounds the Pontic Rhododendron almost runs over and destroys 

 every other shrub, and hides out the most beautiful tree effects, growing 

 often a little above the line of sight. Even where people have taken 

 the greatest trouble to plant a good collection of trees, the monotony 

 of it is depressing ; always the same in colour, winter or summer, 

 except when dashed by its ill-coloured flowers. The walk from the 

 ruins at Cowdray to the new house is an example that might be 

 mentioned amongst a thousand others of a noble bank of trees, varied 

 and full of beauty, but, in consequence of this shrub spreading 

 beneath them all along the walk, showing nothing but a dank wall of 

 evergreen. How this ugliness and monotony come about is through 

 the use of the Pontic kind as a covert plant, and also owing to its 

 facility of growth, the beautiful sorts of Rhododendron are usually 

 grafted on it. In a garden where there are men to look after plants 

 so grafted and pull away the suckers, this plan may do, but when 

 planting is done in a bold way about woods, or even pleasure grounds, 

 this is not attended to, nor can it always be, so that the suckers come 

 up and in time destroy the valuable sorts ! The final result is never 

 half so pretty as in the most ill-kept natural wood, with Bracken and 

 Brier in fine colour and some little variety of form below the trees ; 

 therefore everybody who cares for the beauty of undergrowth 

 should cease this covering of the ground with this poor shrub, not so 

 hardy as the splendid kinds of American origin often grafted on it to 

 die. With the Cherry Laurel and the Portugal Laurel it is the main 

 cause of the monotony and cheerless air of so many pleasure 

 grounds. 



The nurseryman who grows rare trees or shrubs very often finds 

 them left on his hands, so that many nurseries only grow a few 



