311 



AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 



OF THE 



STRAITS 



AND 



FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 



No. 8.] AUGUST, 1908. [Vol. VII. 



ORNAMENTAL TREES AND SHRUBS. 



Effective landscape gardening is an art which is only acquired 

 by considerable study, taste and judgment on the part of the persons 

 engaged in its excution. 



The art has reference chiefly to the laying out of extensive grounds 

 and large estates and the arrangement and planting of trees and shrubs 

 in such a manner as to produce the best effect. Although the gardens 

 surrounding the majority of houses and bungalows in this country are not 

 large enough to allow of landscape gardening in the true sense of the 

 word still the principles of the art can be applied in the arrangement 

 of flowering trees and shrubs and other ornamental plants. 



For example tall trees and shrubs should be kept in the back 

 ground with smaller subjects in the foreground and so arranged as not 

 to obstruct the view. Again straight lines should be avoided where 

 possible and all attempts at formality should be guarded against. This 

 applies more to large grounds as it is understood that in a small garden 

 the formal style of gardening must of necessity be introduced. 



In planning a garden, be it large or small, definite ideas are neces- 

 sary and no attempt should be made unless the utmost forethought 

 has been given and the results calculated to prove tolerably certain, 

 in fact a rough sketch of the grounds should be prepared and the work of 

 making the garden guided thereby. A climate like ours offers so many 

 advantages for effective and ornamental gardening and the number of 

 ornamental and flowering trees and shrubs is so great that the work 

 of making a beautiful garden is comparatively easy. It is therefore 

 surprising that in one's travels one sees so very few well arranged and 

 effective gardens. This may be clue to a lack of interest in horticulture 

 which is unfortunate in the sight of the true lover of plants and flowers 

 and also from a hygienic stand point as an hour's gardening in the cool 

 of the morning is a most enjoyable and healthful exercise, or it may be 

 due to giving too much initiative to the native gardener whose knowl- 

 edge extends to the cutting of the grass on the lawn but his ideas of 

 general gardening are of an extremely rudimentary kind. 



