CHAPTER XV 



ENGLISH EFFECTS WITH BROAD-LEAVED 

 EVERGREENS 



We may get only three fourths of the English luxuriance, but we 

 have more native species Seven effects we can have and jour 

 we can't 



IT IS no wonder that the myriads of Americans who visit 

 England every year become intoxicated with the beauty of 



the broad-leaved evergreens. The first glimpse of the 

 rhododendrons in Rotten Row is enough to turn any one's head, 

 and the Americans who crowd into the big tent at the inner circle, 

 Regent's Park, to view that matchless colour show in June, can 

 hardly wait to get back home and begin planting. For, in Eng- 

 land, any one can see that broad-leaved evergreens are the 

 most sumptuous plants in cultivation. True, pines and other 

 narrow-leaved evergreens are also attractive the year round, 

 and many of them attain far grander dimensions, but they 

 do not have gorgeous flowers or red berries that last all 

 winter. Moreover, conifers as a class are a little inclined to 

 coldness and monotony, while the broad-leaved evergreens, from 

 the greater breadth and lustre of their leaves, are pleasanter to 

 live with the year round. For the immediate environment of a house ', 

 broad-leaved evergreens are certainly the most desirable plants in the 

 world, while tall conifers are quite unsuited to that position. 



But the most precious quality in broad-leaved evergreens is 

 a certain mystic charm which has nothing at all to do with showy 



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