1853.] THE PHILADELPHIA FLORIST. 271 



[> *) den ing we employ art to produce a pleasingly natural effect. Because 

 q° the world of mankind, to suit its own fancies or necessities, divides 

 / the earth into kingdoms and countries, and pronounces all beyond 

 the boundaries of any given section foreign ; it does not follow that 

 the world of nature must do the same. If we are to object to some 

 plants as being "foreigners," let us understand the nature of our ob- 

 jection. "Our country" is a pretty "big" word. From the St. Law- 

 rence to the Rio Grande, the Atlantic to the Pacific — and even then 

 when are we to stop. A plant to day a "foreigner," may be a native 

 to-morrow. Should Mexico, Canada, or Cuba become annexed, we 

 shall have a few thousand more flocking; to the office of some botan- 

 ical notary for their "naturalization papers." Flora laughs at the 

 idea — in her code of laws, judged by a jury of humanity, the noble 

 old Taxodium in Bartram's Garden is as much a "foreigner" there, as 

 the Platanus orientalis whose branches are intertwined with it. In 

 our flower garden we cannot see that the white Vinca of Madagascar, 

 or the Plumbago Larpentse of China, can practically be considered 

 less foreigners than the Escholtzia crocea or Eupatorium cselestinum 

 from States of our own esteemed Union. The fact is, all plants are 

 "foreigners" when not growing in their native localities. 



What plants or trees are to be used in landscape gardening, does not 

 nor ought not, to be made a question of national partiality. If any 

 given tree possesses any property which any given American tree does 

 not possess, while at the same time it has every property of the other 

 with that peculiar one of its own, it ought to have the preference. — 

 What is as well adapted for planting on the top of an elevated piece 

 of ground, as the Norway Spruce, if that piece of ground happen to be 

 appropriate to the surrounding scenery \ Its erect, heaven-aspiring 

 top, darting upwards as if in proud contempt of the hill's height on 

 which it grows, while the half-ascending yet pendulous branches as 

 if half-wishing, yet fearing to follow their leader to the dizzy height 

 to which he aspires, seem to embrace the ground beneath them. The 

 Hemlock Spruce is the only "native" approaching this in such cases ; 

 and those who have seen large specimens of each side by side can only 

 appreciate the superior beauty of the former. 



There are often many properties which the so-called foreign trees 



possess which can be found in no others, thus rendering them in some 



cases indispensable. As the dark, sombre evergreen is the associate 



of our ideas of winter, so the light, airy, sprightly habits of deciduous 



trees are of the joyous freshness of summer. It is a very desirable 



point in all gardens which are connected with a summer residence, 



L that the deciduous trees they may contain are, many of them, of those 



" kinds which retain their leaves to a late period of the autumn. The 



®^ British Oak, carrying with it that impregnable pride which in its own' 



