JULY 179 



ivy may succeed, but, as a rule, all evergreens are 

 hopeless. 



But if you -want unfailing summer verdure, plant a 

 fig-tree in your area ; the hotter the summer, the fresher 

 spread the splendid leaves, purifying the air for many 

 yards around the best of all Cockney trees of lowly 

 growth. The common laburnum, too, is a charming 

 wall shrub for a town ; two only I know of in London 

 one in Belgrave Square, another in Grosvenor Square 

 and though I have not the privilege of acquaintance 

 with their owners, year after year, as regularly as May 

 comes round, I bless them for these pretty trees. 



Magnolias most magnificent of flowering trees 

 seem not to have been tried, but there is little doubt, 

 seeing how well they flourish as standards in Hyde 

 Park, at Kew, Syon House, and elsewhere near the 

 metropolis, that they would lend themselves to wall 

 decoration. Only it must not be the evergreen species, 

 M. grandiflora, but such deciduous kinds as Exo- 

 niensis, with chalice of ivory-white ; purple-stained 

 Soulangeana, or the myriad blooming parviflora. The 

 Persian lilac is a good area plant, though I have only 

 seen it once grown in that position again in Grosvenor 

 Square. The scientific name of the lilac is Syringa, 

 but among the shrubs we commonly call syringa in 

 English the white-flowered Philadelphus are some 

 species which it is almost certain would thrive in 

 town, as they do in suburban gardens. The rarer and 

 more robust species should be chosen Philadelphus 

 grandiflorus and Gordonianus which are simply 



