AND SHRUBS FOR CITIES, 



177 



squares, especially those with, a dry gravelly, sandy, or light 

 bottom. 



Among various trees thoughtlessly recommended for 

 London planting in the journals of the past year was the 

 Copper Beech. I trust nobody will ever use that as a town 

 tree ; not at least until we have too much green in our 

 cities, instead of square miles of dull brick without a 

 verdant spot, as at present. When we become sufficiently 

 Gallicized to establish a Morgue, a few dark and gloomy- 

 looking Copper Beeches might appropriately adorn its 

 neighbourhood. Nobody can object to grouping this 

 tree here and there in the parks, or to the use of the 

 Copper Beech in an isolated manner among other trees, 

 but to talk of planting avenues of these trees is harrowing. 

 There seems a sort of purgatorial ingenuity about this 

 recommendation. We are coppery enough in all conscience ; 

 and though a line of rusted Limes relieved by Coppery 

 Beeches might suit a nation of very strict ritualistic tenden- 

 cies, anxious to find even an additional pang among their 

 trees — surely the most noble, stately, and useful objects that 

 nature has given for the embellishment of the earth — I trust 

 such a peace-destroying combination will never be seen in 

 my time. I would punish the writer of it by shutting 

 him up in a London house of a hot August day, and let 

 Copper Beeches and hideous Limes be the only things on 

 which he could refresh his eyes — a dreadful punishment for 

 anybody with a nervous system and a slight knowledge of 

 trees. 



Evergreens, as has been frequently pointed out, are 

 as a class better avoided; and yet there are for city 

 gardens some kinds which seem to flourish disregarding 

 smoke. Of these the Japan Privet (Ligustrum japonicum) 

 is worthy of a front place. The beauty and utility of the 

 Japan Privet is insufficiently known to the town- gardener, 

 though it is extensively planted by the judicious landscape 

 gardener and planter. Large in leaf almost as a goodly 

 Orange, producing flowers almost as large as the white 

 lilac, and very sweet, it possesses first-class attractions as an 

 ornamental shrub ; but it is to its value as a London plant 



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