14 TREES AND SHRUBS 



has a pleasant feeling of elasticity that is absent in 

 common turf. 



Many are the pleasure-grounds in the south of 

 England and Scotland where the soil is sandy and, 

 perhaps, peaty. Any such can have these pleasant 

 heathy paths. We have even seen them on a poor 

 sandy clay, scarcely good enough to call loam, in 

 Sussex ; for Calluna, unlike the other Heaths, will 

 grow wiUingly in clay. In the case quoted the plant 

 was wild in the place. 



In a Fir wood, the bare earth carpeted with needles 

 always makes a suitable path, and one that is always 

 dry ; the only thing to correct is to fill up any places 

 where the bare roots rise above the path level. For 

 in these informal paths, where we want to look about 

 and at the trees, there should be no danger of being 

 tripped up. The path, of whatever nature, should be 

 wide enough for two persons — 5 feet to 6 feet is 

 ample ; but it should have quite a different character 

 to the garden path, in that its edges are not defined 

 or straightened. 



One may often see in the outskirts of an old 

 garden a dense wood that once was only a growth of 

 shrubbery size. The walk was originally bordered 

 by a Box edging, and there may have been a strip of 

 flowers between it and the shrubs. Here and there 

 one may still see a yard or two of straggling Box 

 nearly 2 feet high. Of course, this edging should 

 have been removed as soon as the place became a 

 wood, for after a certain time its original use as a 

 formal edging to a trim plantation ceased to exist. 



