BROAD-LEAVED EVERGREENS 175 



of wild gardening. This particular species Mr. Robinson calls 

 Bambusa palmata, and says it is even finer than the other hardy, 

 evergreen bamboo. The reedy effect is noticeable here. The only 

 picture I have of Arundinaria Japonic a shows it arching gracefully 

 to the ground. 



THE CITY EFFECT 



New York can never be as beautiful as London because she 

 has no front yards. I saw thousands upon thousands of London 

 yards full of matchless beauty. For they are hedged in by broad- 

 leaved evergreens, especially holly and aucuba. Such gardens 

 contain nothing else save grass, but to my mind they are infinitely 

 more dignified and appropriate than any flower beds that mind 

 can conceive. May heaven save London from skyscrapers, and 

 may American cities of decent size be saved from tall tenements! 

 Possibly we may grow broad-leaved evergreens in back yards of 

 big cities, but probably we never shall, for there can be no privacy 

 in yards overlooked by tall buildings. In London there are count- 

 less brick buildings of two or three stories with lovely gardens front 

 and back. In front yards public opinion compels decency and 

 demands beauty. 



I do not wish to see front yards in America hedged in, but 

 there is a noble effect we can get by massing. Every one who has 

 noticed the rhododendrons in the Vanderbilt yard facing the prin- 

 cipal entrance to Central Park, in New York, will know at once 

 what is meant. For rhododendrons, box, holly, and the like 

 make the grandest harmonies with architecture of any plants in 

 the world. This is because they have just enough formality, are 

 evergreen, long-lived, never grow too high, and are attractive 

 every day of the year. Conifers cannot stand smoke and are a total 

 failure in London, but Henry Hicks declares that broad-leaved 



