118 GARDENS OF ENGLAND 



Arnold Arboretum in America, may well be quoted 

 here. They are taken from a paper delivered some 

 time ago before the New England Association of 

 Park Superintendents. Mr. Dawson then said, and 

 his remarks are applicable also to this country, that 

 " one of the great needs in our parks is some natural 

 bits of planting near our ponds or lakes. While I 

 would not like the whole pond or shore covered 

 with shrubs or aquatics, I would like some little 

 bits of Nature left. What looks more unnatural 

 than a beautiful pond or lake divested of all natural 

 beauty, leaving the trees trimmed up like so many 

 sentinels and every vestige of shrub and flowering 

 plant cleared to the water's edge ? On the other 

 hand, what is more beautiful than the trees or shrub- 

 bery hanging over a river's bank or gracefully 

 grouped at intervals along the edge of a pond ? 

 We have so many plants that love this moist 

 situation. Imagine a planting of groups of azaleas, 

 clethra, viburnums, cornus, and mjrrica, and with 

 irises, hibiscus, forget-me-nots, etc. Can we not 

 have more winter gardens in our parks and make 

 those we have more ornamental instead of the 

 unsightly things edged with stone walls that we 

 call ponds? Neither pond nor brook should be 

 planted with stone unless actually necessary to hold 



