CHAPTER XIIL 



A PLAN FOR THE l-LMF.ELLISILMENT OF THE SHRUBBEIIY 

 BORDERS IN LONDON PARKS. 





In the winter sea- 

 son, or indeed at 

 any other season, 

 one of the most 

 melancholy things 

 to be seen' in our 

 parks and gardens 

 are the long, hare, 

 naked slirul)heries, 

 extending, as along 

 the Bayswater 

 Eoad, more or less 

 for a mile in a place; the soil greasy, black, seamed with the 

 mutilated roots of the poor shrubs and trees ; which are 

 none the better, l)ut very mucli the worse, for the cruel 

 annual attention of digging up tlieir young roots M-ithout 

 returning any adequate nourishment or good to the soil. 

 Culturally, the whole thing is suicidal, both for trees and 

 plants. Tlie mere fact of men having to pass through one 



Dug :ind mutilated Shrubbery in St. James's Park. 

 Sketched in iinntcr of i^-]g. 



