i6o Landscape Gardening 



out, leaving serious gaps where they had grown, and a wild- 

 ness and want of cultivation foreign to the character of a 

 garden would speedily ensue. The term thicket is used here 

 to define a plantation in which shrubs prevail, and where 

 they are kept but sparingly thinned out, and are allowed to 

 grow into each other pretty freely so long as they are not 

 likely to destroy one another. It is a mass wherein the 

 plants are so arranged, and stand so thickly, that it cannot 

 be seen through, not one which has been produced by neglect. 

 Undergrowth will be chiefly, almost solely, reciuisite be- 

 neath trees which are growing so closely together that their 

 branches cannot reach the ground, and the bare stems become 

 prominent and unsightly in consequence, while the object of 

 the plantation, as respects the concealment of a boundary, is 

 defeated. Scarcely any plant is equal to the holly for under- 

 growth, since it will flourish under trees, and is not limited 

 as to height, and is a thorough evergreen. Privet is superior 

 as a rapid grower and of a denser habit, if not too much 

 drawn up, but it is deficient in the size of the leaves, and in 

 not being entirely evergreen. Rhododendrons thrive exceed- 

 ingly well under shade, but require careful watering for a 

 year or two. Common laurel will endure some amount of it, 

 but are injured by an excessive quantity. All these are ever- 

 green and of course so much the more adapted for filling 

 up permanently the space under trees. Elders, dogwoods, 

 the Norway maple, snowberries, and even lilacs, as deciduous 

 plants, will thrive beneath shade, though they cannot be 

 expected to bloom much in that position. The true secret of 

 causing any of the plants mentioned to succeed permanently 

 when largely overshadowed by trees lies in renewing the soil 

 around and above the roots occasionally to compensate for 

 the exhaustion produced by the more extensive absorption 

 of its nutritive properties by the trees. 



