Selections for Naturalization. 137 



their leaves under it before the foliage of the tree appears; 

 then, as the Summer heats approach, they are gradually 

 overshadowed by a cool canopy, and go to rest undis- 

 turbed ; but the leaves of the trees once fallen, they soon 

 begin to appear again and cover the ground with beauty. 

 An example or two will perhaps explain the matter 

 more fully. Take the case of, say, a spreading old speci- 

 men of the handsome Weeping Mountain Elm. Scatter 

 a few tufts of the Winter Aconite beneath it, and leave 

 them alone. In a very few years they will have covered 

 the groimd ; every year afterwards they will spread a 

 golden carpet beneath the tree ; and when it fades there 

 will be no eyesore from decaying leaves as there would 

 be on a border — no necessity for replacing the plants 

 with others ; the tree puts forth its leaves, covering the 

 ground till Autumn, and in early Spring we again see our 

 little friend in all the vigour of his glossy leaves. In this 

 way this pretty Spring flower may be seen to much greater 

 advantage, in a much more pleasing position than in the 

 ordinary way of putting it in patches and rings in beds or 

 borders, and with a tithe of the trouble. There are many 

 other subjects of which the same is true. We have only 

 to imagine this done in a variety of cases to see to what 

 a beautiful and novel result it would lead. Given the 

 bright blue Apennine Anemone under one tree, the 

 Snowflake under another, tlie delicately toned Triteleia 

 under another, and so on, we should have a Spring 

 garden of the most beautiful kind. Of course the same 

 thing could be carried out under the branches of a grove 

 as well as of specimen trees. Very attractive mixed 



