64 WOOD AND GARDEN 



large perennial Cornflower {Gentaurea Tnontana) and the 

 common Cotoneaster. I have often secured a dozen in 

 a few minutes on one or other of these plants, first 

 knocking them down with a battledore. 



Now, in the third week of May, Rhododendrons 

 are in full bloom on the edge of the copse. The plan- 

 tation was made about nine years ago, in one of the 

 regions where lawn and garden were to join the wood. 

 During the previous blooming season the best nurseries 

 were visited and careful observations made of colour- 

 ing, habit, and time of blooming. The space they 

 were to fill demanded about seventy bushes, allowing 

 an average of eight feet from plant to plant — not 

 seventy diiferent kinds, but, perhaps, ten of one kind, 

 and two or three fives, and some threes, and a few 

 single plants, always bearing in mind the ultimate 

 intention of pictorial aspect as a whole. In choosing 

 the plants and in arranging and disposing the groups 

 these ideas were kept in mind : to make pleasant ways 

 from lawn to copse ; to group only in beautiful colour 

 harmonies ; to choose varieties beautiful in themselves ; 

 to plant thoroughly well, and to avoid overcrowding. 

 Plantations of these grand shrubs are generally spoilt 

 or ineffective, if not absolutely jarring, for want of 

 attention to these simple rules. The choice of kinds 

 is now so large, and the variety of colouring so exten- 

 sive, that nothing can be easier than to make beautiful 

 combinations, if intending planters will only take the 

 small amount of preliminary trouble that is needful. 



