328 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



Box, which is a true native in certain dry hills in the south of 

 England, is so crowded in gardens, that one seldom sees its beauty as 

 one may on the hills full in the sun, where the branches take a charm- 

 ing plumy toss. To wander among natural groves of Box is 

 pleasant, and we should plant it in colonies by itself full in the 

 sun, so that it might show the same grace of form that it shows wild 

 on the chalk hills. It is, I think, the best of our native evergreens 

 for garden use, making pretty low hedges as at Panshanger, for 

 that purpose for dividing lines near the flower-garden it is better 

 than Yew or Holly. 



Also among our native evergreens is the common Juniper, a 

 scrubby thing in some places, but on heaths in Surrey, and favoured 

 heaths elsewhere, often growing over twenty feet high and very 

 picturesque, especially where mingled with Holly. The upright form, 

 called the Irish Juniper, in gardens is not nearly so good as the wild 

 Juniper though more often grown. 



The Arbutus, which borders nearly all the streams in Greece, 

 ventures into Ireland, and is abundant there in certain parts in the 

 south. This beautiful shrub, though tender in midland counties, 

 is very precious for the seashore and mild districts not only as an 

 evergreen, but for the beauty of its flowers and fruit. Still, it is the 

 one British evergreen which must not be planted where the winters 

 are severe in inland districts, and usually perishes on the London 

 clay. 



It is the best of our native evergreens that deserve the prefer- 

 ence instead of the heavy Laurels, and various evergreens not even 

 hardy, so that after a hard frost we often see the suburbs of country 

 towns black with their dead. 



UGLY EVERGREEN TREES AND SHRUBS. One of the most 

 baneful things ip our gardens has been the introduction of distorted 

 and ugly conifers which often disfigure the fore-grounds of beautiful 

 houses. These are often sports and variations raised in modern 

 days, as is the case with the too common Irish Yew. It is not only 

 that we have to deplore the tender trees of California, which in 

 their own country are beautiful, though, unhappily, not so in ours, but 

 it is the mass of distorted, unnatural, and .ugly forms the names 

 of which disfigure even the best catalogues that is most confusing 

 and dangerous. In one foreign catalogue there are no less than 

 twenty-eight varieties of the Norway Spruce, in all sorts of dwarf and 

 monstrous shapes some of them, indeed, dignified with the name 

 monstrosa not one of which should ever be seen in a garden. 

 The true beauty of the pine comes from its form and dignity, as we 

 see it in old Firs that clothe the hills of Scotland, California, or Swit- 

 zerland. It is not in distortion or in little green pincushions we 



