36 



Annals of Horticulture. 



stantial body of all plantations for ornament, the growing use 

 of shrubbery has had a special effect which is of great import- 

 ance. It has caused us to study our rich native flora in the 

 way of shrubs, and to make use of the many charming natives 

 that exist so abundantly in our fields and forests. This is the 

 most healthy and hopeful phase of the whole subject, and is 

 proof that the real and permanent beauty is now appreciated, 



and that glare is at a discount. ^ 



Our land is far more rich than Europe in fine decorative 

 native shrubs, and this is a fact that Europeans were quick to 

 see and make use of, while we have sadly neglected them as a\ 

 rule, until the present awakening of taste has demonstrated 

 their value and caused .their use in many important places.' 

 In this existing impulse of our people to decorate their homes 

 with plants, the thoroughly trained landscape gardener has 

 done a noble work. It is largely through his honest and often 

 unappreciated efforts to plant as true taste requires, and what 

 things are most natural and characteristic for the given 

 place rather than what untrained taste sometimes suggests, 

 that a better knowledge of the true uses of plants and trees 

 has been taught. His object lessons have been like good- seed, 

 and now fashion — most potent of all modern causes — has 

 caught the spirit of it, and ordains that all grounds shall be at 

 once and properly planted. We are still in the transition 

 state from the earlier barrenness of ornament of the average 

 "yard" of old days through that of "bedding" glories into 

 the final and restful method of treatment, where masses of 

 pleasing foliage, lighted up with flowers and varied in forms, 

 and enduring most of all the year, give a sense of rest to the 

 tired soul, instead of an ephemeral glare of colors, succeeded 

 by sudden ruin at first frost, eked out by a long refrain of 

 bare ground. 



In this present elastic condition of our national ways of 

 planting, it would be useful to compare the practice of the 

 older nations who have had longer time to study this matter. 

 In looking at them relatively, we find that the greatest dif- 

 ference lies in the far larger use made of evergreen shrubs, 

 especially broad-leaved evergreens, in Europe. They plant 

 for the whole year; we plant for the summer. England is 

 famous for her laurels and rhododendrons, and uses them so 

 freely that the main difference between the appearance of a 



