EVERGREEN ORNAMENTAL TREES. 201 



beauty of a country residence in winter. At that season, 

 when, during three or four months the landscape is 

 bleak and covered with snow, these noble trees, properly 

 intermingled with the groups in view from the window, 

 or those surrounding the house, give an appearance of 

 verdure and life to the scene which cheats winter of half 

 its dreariness. In exposed quarters, also, and in all windy 

 and bleak situations, groups of evergreens form the most 

 effectual shelter at all seasons of the year, while many 

 of them have the great additional recommendation of 

 growing upon the most meagre soils. 



In fine country residences abroad, it is becoming 

 customary to select some extensive and suitable locality, 

 where all the species of Pines and Firs are collected 

 together, and allowed to develope themselves in their 

 full beauty of proportion. Such a spot is called a Pinetum ; 

 and the effect of all the different species growing in the 

 same assemblage, and contrasting their various forms, 

 heights, and peculiarities, cannot but be strikingly ele- 

 gant. One of the largest and oldest collections of this 

 kind is the Pinetum of Lord Grenville, at Dropmore, near 

 Windsor, England. This contains nearly 100 kinds, 

 comprising all the sorts known to English botanists, that 

 will endure the open air of their mild climate. The great 

 advantage of these Pinetums is, that many of the more 

 delicate species, which if exposed singly would perish, 

 thrive well, and become quite naturalized under the shelter 

 of the more hardy and vigorous sorts. 



