168 BROAD-LEAVED EVERGREENS 



by the new art called "landscape forestry," which transforms 

 monotonous woods into enchanting groves at small expense and in 

 only four or five years. (See plate 66.) Some of the main ideas 

 are saving the best trees and giving them a chance to develop, 

 making trails or paths to all the most interesting features, and 

 breaking here and there the fringe of shrubbery which generally 

 surrounds American woods, barring all visions of the beauties 

 within. Only by some such plan can we have the grandest 

 wild garden effects with rhododendrons, and we ought to pro- 

 duce even more ravishing pictures than those of England, 

 because our Catawbiense and maximum are so much better 

 than the vile-coloured Ponticum that becomes a "weed" in 

 English woodlands. 



THE PEAT-GARDEN EFFECT 



The great limitation of the spring garden, however, is that it 

 omits the mountain laurel, which has the most exquisite flower of 

 all broad-leaved evergreens, and our other great hero, Rhododendron 

 maximum. So the next step is to have a bed of evergreens that will 

 show flowers or berries the year round. For example, one can have 

 a mass of bloom from mountain laurel in late June, Rhododendron 

 maximum in July, heather in August, holly-leaved osmanthus in 

 autumn, and the red berries of American holly all winter. 



Moreover, there are a lot of exquisite little plants for edging 

 and carpeting these beds which are well-nigh impossible to grow 

 elsewhere, such as the ever blooming Daphne, the far-famed Shortia 

 the bronze-leaved Galax, trailing arbutus, wintergreen, partridge- 

 berry and that never-ending marvel, the mountain andromeda, 

 which holds up all winter sprays of white flower buds somewhat 

 like the lily-of-the-valley. 



