SUGGESTIONS FOR PLANTING TREES AND SHRUBS. 



419 



it the reader of these lines should be quite ignorant of arboriculture and yet desire 

 to start a collection of trees, he will find little help in an ordinary nurseryman's catalogue, 

 and the strings of foreign and often ill-spelt names will hardly help him to distinguish 

 between a rock-plant, a grass, and a monarch of the forest. 1 would suggest in such 

 circumstances that a personal visit should be paid to Kew Gardens and to one or two of 

 the leading nurseries, where a large collection of good trees can be seen growing, and a 

 selection made according to the individual taste of the purchaser. 



If anyone is in doubt whether to go in specially for conifers or deciduous trees, 1 would 

 rather recommend the latter. (1) Because they require less care and attention, though 

 they require a great deal. (2) Because they are cheaper. ( Because it is far more 

 common in a well-kept garden to see a good pinetum than to find a well-assorted collection of 

 choice deciduous plants. I have mentioned earlier in this article that it is well so to plant trees 

 as to get the greatest contrast of form, foliage, and colour ; and to assist others in attaining 

 this object 1 will now give some lists of those plants which differ most conspicuously in 

 these respects. Among trees w hich grow in an erect pyramidal fashion, and make marked 

 points in the landscape, are the Lombardy Poplar, and its more uncommon variety Populus 

 Bolleana, fastigiated forms of the Oak', Him, Birch, Acacia, and Thorn, which can be obtained 

 from any good nursery, and which are far too little planted, not so much on account of their 

 own beaut)' as from the way in which they set off their more spreading neighbours. Among 

 evergreen trees it is comparatively easy to get examples of pyramidal growth, and it is only 

 necessary to mention the Irish Yew, the various kinds of Cypress, such as C. Lawsoniana, 

 C. Fraseri, C. erecta viridis, 

 the Thujiopsis Borealis, and 

 Thuja Lobbi. Trees of this 

 character require careful and 

 tasteful planting ; if you 

 overdo them you will destroy 

 the natural look of your place 

 and give a suggestion of a 

 suburban cemetery, and it 

 should be noted that two or 

 three points pretty close 

 together of varying heights do 

 not produce a good effect ; on 

 the other hand, one tall 

 Cypress or Poplar standing 

 up like a sentinel and break- 

 ing the sky - line among 

 Thorns, Quinces, or other 

 low - growing round - headed 

 trees, gives the same improve- 

 ment to -a view as is produced 

 by a church steeple. 



Trees which are 

 markedly in contrast with the 

 foregoing from their squat and 

 rounded habit are all kinds of 

 Crataegus, the scarlet Horse 

 Chestnut, tin' Quince, snowy 

 Mespilus, Medlar, Catalpa, 

 Walnut, Pyrus Mai us 



TAXVS GRANDIS. 



