IN THE TROPICAL GARDEN. 263 



smothered by the more hardy and rampant trees, 

 shrubs, and especially climbers, these latter must 

 be hacked about here and there until they become 

 quite deformed. This is the great fault of a tropical 

 garden. When it is laid out with a number of 

 pretty shrubs the owner never seems to think that 

 many of these will grow to great trees, and in doing 

 so smother the rest. At first the beds of crotons, 

 hibiscus, and other foliage and flowering plants can 

 be looked down upon as we walk in the garden ; a 

 few months hence they will be above our heads, 

 and, if not trimmed, form a great thicket. Instead 

 of rooting up the majority to make room, almost 

 every one gets mutilated, with the result that 

 hardly a single shrub or tree is anything but 

 unsightly to a lover of nature. This is carried 

 out almost everywhere, so that even public gardens 

 offend the eye by a crowd of deformities. This is 

 entirely apart from the display of bad taste in 

 cutting shrubs into outlandish shapes fortunately 

 that is not very common which shows simply the 

 want of appreciation of the fact that there is as 

 much real beauty in natural form as in colour. 



To us the wild garden is far more beautiful and 

 interesting. Here we see every one at work 

 straining to get ahead, some losing ground as the 

 others overtop them, but nevertheless doing their 



