Trees, Shrubs and Vines 
prieties. If you insist on keeping them within prison- 
walls, you must at least leave them pretty much alone. 
For small grounds they are simply impossible; they 
spoil their surroundings, and their surroundings return 
evil for evil; but in semi-rough nature, in some frag- 
ment of a lawn that is not supervised too much, they 
feel at home and are interesting. 
The best native species are the dwarf and the stag- 
horn; the latter aspires to be a tree, and very rarely 
succeeds ; the dwarf is about the most satisfactory, nor 
is it so dwarf as the name implies, as it sometimes 
reaches a height of fifteen or twenty feet; unlike the 
others its pinnate leaves are very glossy, and it rivals 
all its kindred in autumn’s fiery brilliancy. One of 
the most strikingly effective little trees in the Park 
in October proved to be the dwarf sumach. The cut- 
leaved variety of the smooth sumach is very orna- 
mental. 
If you have spacious grounds, create in a far-off 
corner a semblance of nature’s wildness, mingle sumachs 
with low shrubbery and scattered trees, and a refreshing 
glimpse of unconventional freedom will be afforded. 
Never fraternizing with these humble sorts is the 
more elegant Venetian sumach, better known as smoke- 
tree ; but it takes a microscope to see the relationship. 
If it were human it would probably wish to repudiate 
its connections, for it moves in a much higher circle 
than its country cousins ever aspire to. ‘This makes an 
elegant centre-piece for asmall greensward when wrapped 
in its smoky cloud; but at other times, with its long- 
stemmed round leaves, it has nothing special to com- 
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