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FLORA AND SYLVA, 



nothing but leave the bare shore-fields to the winds we do not get much beauty ; 

 but if the least care is taken in building up shelter for seashore shrubs and trees, 

 then all is easy, especially with such a splendid aid as the Holm Oak, which 

 at Abbotsbury is put for a friendly evergreen wall round every new plantation, 

 even in that sheltered dell by the sea. It is a tree which fears no storms, and 

 never gives way before them, and which loves the sea. 



It is not the seashore folk and those who dwell by their many river valleys 

 and estuaries that are to be pitied, but rather those struggling with inland and 

 midland conditions in our islands. For those who have to face such terrible 

 winters as those of Hungary and Central Germany there is no chance to walk 

 in avenues of Palms, like Mr. Fox at Falmouth, or lovely Tree Ferns, Bananas, 

 and Gum Trees, as at Menabilly ; so that our privilege as island gardeners is 

 a singular one in Europe, considering our northern position, and we ought to 

 take advantage of it. In no northern country can we see such a variety of 

 charming vegetation, Himalayan Rhododendron, Banana, Palm, Indian Mag- 

 nolia, and a list of things which would fill the whole of Flora. It would take 

 a long time to free people's minds of the idea that it is only in the warm and 

 often relaxing southern country that such beautiful results may be got by 

 planters and gardeners ; but we can see how wrong it is by such instances as 

 those of Mr. Acton on the hills of Wicklow, and also the lovely plantations at 

 Bodorgan on the stormy coast of Anglesey. Given the same shelter and care 

 in bracing and northern places very beautiful results may also be had, with a few 

 possible exceptions, in favour of the Firebush and a few others that so far thrive 

 in the south only. As to the lovely Himalayan Rhododendrons, there seems 

 to be no shore limit to their culture near the sea — some of the finest flowers 

 come from the West of Scotland. Not only coast gardens may be beautiful, 

 but also plantations of trees of the highest value, as, by working up from the 

 shore, with small storm-resisting shrubs and trees, we soon get, even in level 

 and apparently exposed shores, the shelter which gives us a warm, protecting, 

 evergreen forest, itself a splendid shelter for the garden. 



Few countries are so rich in sheltering trees as our own, owing to the ever- 

 greens that thrive in seashore districts. Shelter may be near for flower beds or 

 distant for wind-breaks, across the line of prevailing winds, and may be of Yew, 

 Holly, Cedar of Lebanon, native Fir, and a few Firs, and the Ilex. 



Among the kinds of shelter, walls, thickly clad with climbers, evergreens 

 and others, are often the best for close garden work, because they do not rob 

 the ground, as almost any evergreen tree will ; and in doing their work, they 

 themselves may bear many of our most beautiful flowers. Half-hardy evergreens, 

 like the common Cherry-Laurel and Portugal Laurel, should not be planted to 

 shelter the garden, because they may get cut down in hard winters even in 

 southern districts. 



