NEWS OF SPRING 



II 



I notice, as I concludes these pages, that I have not 

 spoken, as I intended to do, of the trees and shrubs with 

 persistent leaves, the evergreens, as the English so aptly 

 call them. Why have they been almost entirely neglected? 

 Judiciously chosen, they might constitute the permanent de- 

 light of our cities burdened with six months of winter. The 

 yew, for instance, is hardly to be found to-day. It is ac- 

 counted, very wrongly, a sad and funereal tree, whereas I 

 have so often seen it lend itself to the most harmonious and 

 cheerful decorations! On the other hand, certain kinds of 

 very robust laurels resist the worst frosts and keep up in De- 

 cember all the gladness and freshness of spring. Lastly, I 

 should have liked to say a word on the plantations along our 

 boulevards, so municipal, so contemptible, so sadly in keep- 

 ing with the street-lamps, whereas one can imagine double 

 and treble arches of foliage, magnificent summer bowers, lead- 

 ing to splashing fountains, to shimmering basins of light. 

 But these points should form the object of a special study. 



[ i8] 



