152 WOOD AND GARDEN 



feet high and about two and a half feet across. Its 

 beautiful garden relative, the Alexandrian or Victory 

 Laurel (Eicscus racemosus), is also now just at its best. 

 Nothing makes a more beautiful wreath than two of 

 its branches, suitably arched and simply bound together 

 near the butts and free ends. It is not a laurel, but a 

 Buscus, the name laurel having probably grown on to 

 it by old association with any evergreen suitable for a 

 victor's wreath. It is a slow-growing plant, but in 

 time makes handsome tufts of its graceful branches. 

 Few plants are more exquisitely modelled, to use a 

 term familiar to the world of fine art, or give an effect 

 of more deHcate and perfect finish. It is a valuable 

 plant in a shady place in good, cool soil. Early in 

 summer, when the young growths appear, the old, then 

 turning rusty, should be cut away. 



No trees group together more beautifully than 

 Hollies and Birches. One such happy mixture in one 

 part of the copse suggested further plantings of Holly, 

 Birches being already in abundance. Every year some 

 more Hollies are planted ; those put in nine years ago 

 are now fifteen feet high, and are increasing fast. 

 They are slow to begin growth after transplanting, 

 perhaps because in our very light soil they cannot 

 be moved with a "ball"; aU the soil shakes away, 

 and leaves the root naked ; but after about three 

 years, when the roots have got good hold and begun 

 to ramble, they grow away well. The trunk of an 

 old Holly has a smooth pale-grey bark, and sometimes 



