GARDENS, STREETS, ETC. 



161 



kind. I could point out to friend " Misodendros " numerous 

 places in the heart of London where trees flourish in the 

 most satisfactory "wayc It must be borne in mind, how- 

 ever, that everything depends upon the kind of tree selected 

 for the purpose ; for even our best landscape gardeners make 

 a sad mistake by obstinately persisting in planting ever- 

 greens, which as a class are totally unfit for town cultiva- 

 tion. Even when moderately healthy these trees are 

 generally so coated with smut that they entirely lack that 

 polished and refreshing verdure which is so characteristic of 

 evergreens grown in fresh and pure air. 



In winter the atmosphere of London, and of many of our 

 great cities and towns, is contaminated by certain minute 

 bodies vulgarly termed " blacks. They belong neither to 

 the vegetable nor to the animal kingdom, but they exercise 

 a powerful influence on the former, for they are deadly 

 enemies to all breathing surfaces ; and though they have not 

 caused civil war and bloodshed like their human name- 

 sakes, yet if the tale of death were carefully summed, 

 no doubt our " natives^^ would head the fatal list by 

 a long way. How then fares it with the vegetation sub- 

 jected to their pernicious influence ? Thousands of expiring 

 and leafless shrubs furnish a rejjly. The once handsome 

 and healthy Araucarias planted in front of Tattersall's at 

 Knightsbridge, and now draped with filth and soot; the 

 young pines and evergreens planted annually in the 

 Eegent^s Park Botanic Gardens, only to dwindle and die ; the 

 handsome Hollies, Yews, and other shrubs planted in the 

 new avenue gardens in the same park ; the fine and costly 

 evergreens in the Hoyal Horticultural Gardens at Ken- 

 sington when it was first laid out, — these and many other 

 cases that I could enumerate, were it necessary, answer the 

 question, and tell the same tale of how they were deprived of 

 life by the vile atmosphere. 



Not so with the deciduous tree or shrub ; nor with those 

 beautiful rosaceous bushes which are the glory of the grove 

 in all temperate climes. After summer^s " fitful fever they 

 sleep well,'''' and when people return to town,^'' and the 

 flues begin to vomit forth poison and smut, they cast away 



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