THE ELOWEE GARDEN. 3 



year, either will not stand the winter, or are sure to be 

 severely injured by it. Laurels, laurustinuses, arbu- 

 tuses, bay-trees, and even Portugal laurels, are kept in 

 tubs, that they may be housed when frost comes. Now, 

 surely those gardeners show better taste by refraining 

 from the employment of such evergreens in the same 

 massive clumps as we do, than if they were to persist in 

 parading half-dead and half-naked regiments of unaccli- 

 mated and unaccliinatable plants. Again: there is a 

 tribe of plants, commonly spoken of by gardeners as 

 American plants, with brilliant flowers, often of curious 

 shape, and peculiar texture — often, too, with evergreen 

 foliage, — which must have a special soil, heath-mould, to 

 grow in, and which are the better for breathing an 

 atmosphere of equable moisture. Rhododendrons, aza- 

 lias, heaths, and kalmias, are of notorious beauty. Now, 

 although beds of American plants may and ought to 

 be made where the soil is not naturally suited for them, 

 — and instances of horticultural success in this line are 

 far from uncommon, — the principle here advocated is, 

 that where the soil and climate are inherently congenial 

 to American plants (as is the case in numerous sites in 

 the hilly parts of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ire- 

 land), there American plants should be made the leading 

 feature of the flower-garden and the pleasure-ground. 

 Thus, not far from Penzance, in Cornwall, there is an 

 extensive grove of pinasters, with an underwood of 

 gigantic rhododendrons, — whose blossoms hang beyond 

 the reach of the tallest man mounted on the tallest 

 horse, now meeting overhead in thickets, now dispersed 

 as independent evergreens. It would be in vain to 

 attempt raising similar specimens under ordinary condi- 

 tions of planting, while it was a happy idea to plant 

 them where they flourish so luxuriantly. Again: the 

 cypress is a magnificent ornament to the gardens of the 

 south of Europe; but it requires a long roasting sum- 

 mer to make it put forth all its strength. It is respect- 

 able in the south of England ; shabby-genteel higher up 

 the island ; in the north, miserable and poverty-struck. 



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