On the Suburban Gardens of the Metropolis. 513 



in the fi'ontages and small gardens in the neighbourhood of 

 Brompton, where they are thriving to the extent desired, and 

 where they add much beauty to the places in which they are 

 introduced. In these gardens, both the common and Portugal 

 laurels are made use of" to advantage, as well as several other 

 evergreens not mentioned above. 



I should advise all persons who are about to lay out and 

 plant frontages and small shrubbery gardens in the immediate 

 vicinity of the metropolis, first to inspect the nurseries that are 

 situated very close to town; for instance, those about Sloane 

 Street, Brompton, and the New Road, &c., and then to make 

 a selection of such evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs as 

 appear to thrive in them, and which may, at the same time, 

 be thought eligible for the situations where they are to be 

 planted. 



Portland Place, August , 1835. 



Art. III. So7ne Remarks on the Suburba7i Gardens of the Metropolis, 

 and on the Mode of laying out and planting the Public Squares. 

 By Mr. T. Rutger. 



I FEEL inclined to lay before you some observations on the 

 defects, as I conceive them to be, in the suburban gardens of the 

 metropolis ; but which, perhaps, may more particularly apply to 

 the frontages of houses in its immediate vicinity. 



In the first place, in the choice which is frequently made of 

 forest trees for the purpose of embellishment, I conceive there is 

 a great error ; as they bear no proportion to the situations in 

 which they are placed. Could London boast of its boulevards, 

 like some of the cities on the Continent, I should rejoice to see 

 trees of this description planted in lines, which, while they gave 

 beauty, would also afford an agreeable shade to the pedestrians 

 during the hot days of summer ; but, planted, as they frequently 

 are, in small gardens consisting only of a few perches of ground, 

 they must either be curtailed by frequent mutilations, or be left 

 to usurp the whole of the contracted space, to the exclusion of 

 such species as would be more in accordance, in regard to size, 

 with the sites on which they stand.* 



* The subject of adapting the sizes of trees to the extent of the grounds in 

 which they are to be placed, is one, as Mr. Rutger truly observes, which is 

 very generally neglected, notwithstanding its great importance. Almost every 

 one who plants a garden of a few perches, in the neighbourhood of London, 

 finds, in eight or ten years afterwards, that a few of the coarser trees have at- 

 tained to such a size as to smother everything else, and to render it altogether 

 impossible either to have smooth green turf, or healthy flowers, the two 

 grand objects for which suburban gardens are desired. For this reason, in our 

 Arboretum Britannicuvi, we have been careful to select and figure as many 



Vol. XI. — No. 67. p p 



