66 NEIQHBOBINO IMPROVEMENTS. 



among a thousand beauties he can hardly fail to make an in- 

 teresting collection. 



H. may have a predilection for spruces, hemlocks, and 

 spiry-top trees, and make the evergreens of those forms, and the 

 deciduous trees that harmonize with them, his specialty.* But 

 care must be used not to render the place gloomy with their too 

 great abundance. 



I. will not have any species in particular, but loves those 

 trees, of whatever species, which spread low and broadly, but clear 

 above the lawn ; like the apple-tree, the mulberry, the horse-chest- 

 nut, the catalpas and paulonias, the white oak, the beech, and some 

 varieties of the thorn. 



J. admires the classic formalities of the old French style of 

 gardening, and prefers trees and shrubs that will bear clipping 

 well, and grow naturally or artificially into symmetric and for- 

 mal shapes ; with straight walks and architectural decorations. 

 In close neighborhoods, and on well-improved streets, architectural 

 gardening is the most elegant of all, but requires much money 

 for constructions, which, if not thorough and tastefully complete, 

 were better not attempted. 



K. wishes a place full of graceful forms, and will use those 

 -trees which will best carry out his idea. His walks must be ser- 

 pentine ; his trees weeping varieties, both deciduous and evergreen, 

 of which the variety in form and character is such as to enable 

 Jiim to make a most picturesque as well as graceful collection. 



L. has a special admiration for trees of exotic or tropical ap- 

 pearance, and if his soil is deeply drained,^ rich, and warm, the mag- 



* Spiry-topped evergreens, like the balsam fir or Norway spruce, are rather impracticable to 

 make entire plantations of on any place. Their forms are too monotonous, and their shadows too 

 meagre, to be used with the same careless profiision near a dwelling that we may employ broadly- 

 -overhanging trees, like the elms, oaks, pines, and maples. Such evergreens are planted quite too 

 much already : many fine places having been rendered most gloomy by their great abundance. A 

 specialty of this kind would, therefore, be " stale and unprofitable," unless made with great skill 



t By deeply-drained, we do not mean the draining of a foot below the surface, but at least four 

 feet, so that the large roots of trees will be invited to penetrate into the substratum, which is never 

 cold to the fi-eezing point, and from which the roots of trees form conductors to the branches 

 above, and thus serve to modify the rigors of the upper air by the warmth of the earth below the 

 frost. If one will but think of the difference in winters* coldest days, between riding all day with 

 warm blocks to the feet, or without them, he can appreciate the argument for inviting trees to root 

 deeply in the earth's warm substratum. 



