AND SHRUBS FOR CITIES. 



178 



there is nothing to surpass it. Sliould anybody doubt this^ 

 I refer him to the specimen of this tree on the lawn of the 

 Botanic Gardens in the Regent-'s Park. I have also seen it 

 in perfect health in small squares in less airy parts of 

 London than that just named. 



A very charming town tree is the weeping variety of 

 Sophora japonica (S. j. pendula). This is perfect as regards 

 size^ not spreading so wide as the weeping Elm, Ash^ or 

 Willow, yet quite as graceful as any of them. It is always 

 densely green^ no matter how hot the season^ and enjoys a 

 poor sandy soil,, and the dry conditions from wliich^ from 

 overdrainage and other causes, town trees are liable to suffer. 

 Bear in mind^ however, that this and all weeping trees should 

 only be used where they are not likely to suffer from muti- 

 lation of any kind, and where their character and grace may 

 be seen and enjoyed. 



The numerous free-growing trees of the Bose order, from 

 the Chinese Pear and the Almonds that illuminate our groves 

 with masses of light rosy flowers in earliest spring, to the 

 dwarf double Prunus, all grow healthfully in our parks ; 

 and though unfit for street-planting, are worthy of the 

 highest attention both for small gardens in towns, and for 

 squares, public gardens, and parks. It would take a very 

 long list to enumerate all the really handsome members of 

 this family now almost entirely neglected in comparison to 

 their merits. They alone are almost caj^able of saving us 

 from the aspect of the soot-covered objects courteously 

 termed evergreens ; and in spring, when all the world bursts 

 out in leaf, they are almost typical of London seasons. 

 From sooty-brown sticks they would " spread out their little 

 hands into the ray/-* quickly become clouds of virgin green, 

 afterwards great bouquets of flowers, white^ pink^ and 

 rose, would give shade and verdure as well as other trees 

 in summer, and in the fulness of time become covered 

 with gay fruits. Let us, for example^ look at the Hawthorn 

 family, known popularly through one of its members, the 

 common May, the admired of everybody. In the Phoenix 

 Park in Dublin there may be seen many thousand quaint, 

 gnarled^ indigenous plants of it — old fellows that must have 



