HEDGES 



ing personality was appreciated as a becoming foil 

 to the multitudinous colors of flowers and their different 

 shapes and expressions. In modern gardens, box has 

 still this purpose, — to offset the beauty of flowers and 

 to define the spaces in which they grow. Years are 

 required to form a sizable hedge of box; but when 

 one is attained, its owner has a valuable possession. 

 In Plate xxv. is given an illustration of a Salem garden 

 well over a hundred years old, the paths through which 

 are edged with box. Here the vividness of its small, 

 lustrous leaves snugly set together makes the green 

 of all else in the garden appear more brilliant than its 

 wont, while the colors of the surrounding flowers seem 

 to scorn the hour of fading. 



Box requires considerable care and very judicious 

 pruning, yet this is given freely by those who love it, 

 since for them no other shrub can take the place of 

 this evergreen of long traditions and unspoken messages. 



A plant adaptable for low hedges, one which com- 

 bines the merit of evergreenness with that of bearing 

 beautiful wine-colored flowers, is Azalea amcena. The 

 test of climate, however, must be made before it is 

 planted, as it has rather a dislike to intense cold. I 

 have seen it, nevertheless, about four hundred feet 

 away from the sea, fulfilling all that was expected of 

 it in the way of producing myriads of flowers and leaves, 

 which in rich shades of bronze and red remained fresh 

 over the winter. The plant will never make a high 

 hedge, but is an excellent one for low outline work 

 inside the garden limits. 



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