XX INTR OD UCTION. 



flowering wood be removed as in the case of Forsythia, as 

 soon as the plant has done blooming, thus relieving the 

 interior of. the plant from being. clogged, and paving the 

 way for increased abundance and beauty of flovvers the 

 following spring. Generally speaking, it might be said that 

 trees and shrubs do not really require pruning at all, except 

 the removal of dfead and deformed portions of the growth. 

 , As regards the selection of trees and shrubs given in 

 these chapters I have to say that, although it comprises a 

 comparatively small list, it yet includes a number of the 

 best kinds as well as such as in most cases can be readily 

 obtained from leading tree and plant growers. I have 

 endeavored to point out in every case the peculiar attrac- 

 tions that render the plants suited to the lawn, and have 

 avoided as much as practicable all technical botanical terms 

 that might be puzzling to the reader. Every one should 

 know these plants intimately, know them as friends that he 

 ought to see every day on his lawn. And it is in the office 

 of such house friends, as the Germans would say, that I 

 have endeavored to consider them. 



My statements concerning the hardiness and time of 

 blooming of plants must not be taken as absolutely precise. 

 I can only oflfer the general conclusions of my individual 

 experience. Nature performs strange freaks. A plant may 

 bloom three weeks later next year than it did this, or two 

 shrubs may have bloomed at the same time last year and 

 this year one may flower a week earlier than the other. 



The same varying rule applies to the hardiness of plants. 

 For years we will find a certain variety, say of rhododen- 

 drons, hardy, and then will come a peculiar season, when a 



