GARDEN DESIGN 59 



callous to natural beauty of tree form, 

 and to show that we cannot even see 

 ugliness. 



Take, again, the clipped Laurels by 

 which many gardens and drives are dis- 

 figured. Laurel in its natural shape in 

 the woods of west country or other 

 places, where it is let alone, is. often fine 

 in form, though we may have too much 

 of it. But it is planted everywhere 

 without thought of its stature or fitness 

 for the spot, and then it grows until the 

 shears are called in, and we see nearly 

 every day its fine leaves and free shoots 

 cut short back, into ugly banks and 

 sharp, wall-like, or formless masses, dis- 

 figuring many gardens without the 

 slightest necessity. There is no place 

 in which it is used clipped for which 

 we could not get shrubs quite suitable 

 that would not need mutilation. It is 

 not only clipped trees that are ugly, but 

 even trees like the Irish Yew, Welling- 



