SUBUEBAN RESIDENCES. ()3 



Uva ursi, a common or variegated box, an evergreen rhododendron, or some 

 other compact growing hardy evergreen shrub, which may be selected from 

 the descriptive catalogue of hardy evergreen shrubs which we shall give in a 

 future page; or a deciduous flowering shrub may be substituted for an ever- 

 green tree, if there should be chiefly evergreens in the adjoining gardens. 

 Among the beautiful deciduous shrubs of moderate growth which require 

 little or no pruning and management, may be mentioned the Cydonia 

 japonica (either the pale or the deep red-flowered variety, or a plant of each 

 put into one hole), the Persian lilac, and the Rlhes sanguineum. Of all 

 these plants the two most suitable are the laurestinus and the Cydonia 

 japonica, because neither require any pruning, and both flower in the winter 

 season. As these plants, however, from their beauty, cheapness, and easy 

 culture, may possibly be common in the adjoining gardens, if expense should 

 not be an object, one of the evergreen berberries or mahonias, such as Ber- 

 heris dealbata or Mahonia y^quifulium, or Giirrya elliptica (a valuable winter 

 shrub), may be selected as the evergreen ; or, if a deciduous shrub be pre- 

 ferred, i^pirsea aricefolia, or .S". bella, or some other species of that genus, or a 

 yellow azalea, may be substituted. These comparatively rare evergreen and 

 deciduous shrubs are as hardy as the others; and, like them, require no 

 pruning whatever, further than cutting off" dead wood or dead flowers. But if 

 all the adjoining front gardens are planted with the more rare and beautiful 

 foreign trees and shrubs, and the occupier should have the laudable desire of 

 increasing the genei-al variety in the street, he may step from the garden 

 into the fields, and place in the centre of his grass plot, for an evergreen, the 

 common spurge laurel, or the double-blossomed furze ; and for a deciduous 

 shrub (if he should prefer one), the spindle tree, or any dwarf British willow, 

 may be made choice of. Should even these be already introduced, he may 

 have recourse to the pine and fir tribe, and take one of the dwarf varieties of 

 the common spruce, such as ^bies excelsa Clanbrasih'fl?m, or a dwarf pine, 

 such as Pinvis sylvestrxs pumilio, or P. s. Miighus. 



95. In the back gardeii, we would merely introduce a few standard low 

 flowering trees, or fruit trees, placing them along the centre of the lawn, that 

 they may not interfere with the walks, along the lawn side of which clothes- 

 lines will probably occasionally be placed in the manner before mentioned. 

 (§ 79.) The ti-ee nearest the house should be a double-blossomed hawthorn, 

 because it comes sooner into leaf than any other low tree, and the flowers 

 being double, are not succeeded by fruit, so that the tree is in no year so 

 exhausted but that it can flower abundantly the year following ; whereas a 

 single-blossomed thorn, or tree of any kind in which the flowers are succeeded 

 by a large crop of fruit, seldom blossoms well two years in succession. Such 

 trees, therefore, should never be chosen for points of view where it is wished 

 to have a fine show of blossoms every year; but rather trees which, like the 

 above-mentioned variety of thorn, bear double blossoms. The next tree may 

 either be aPyrus spectabilis, or transparent or Siberian crab, or some descrip- 

 tion of apple which has shoAvy blossoms and bears abundantly, such as the 

 Hawthornden. The third tree may he a perfumed cherry, standard all-saints' 

 cherry, double-blossomed cherry, an almond, or a Cotoneaster frigida, C. 

 affinis, or some similar tree, which may be selected from the catalogue of 

 hardy trees and shrubs given hereafter. The next tree may be a mulberry, 

 which thrives and bears abundantly in the very heart of London, and which 



