176 



A SELECTION OF THE BEST TREES 



thing be worth planting at all it is worth planting well; 

 and the rule in onr squares, and too often in our parks and 

 gardens, is excessive crowding and little or no attempt at 

 the fair and full development of individual plants, be they 

 costly exotics or merely common''^ wild Roses or Hawthorns. 



Of tribes that may be associated with the Hawthorns there 

 are the Cotoneasters — the freely flowering and fruiting deci- 

 duous species ; the Almonds and Peaches, double and single ; 

 the various double Cherries and Plums ; Amelanchiers 

 (Snowy Mespilus) ; the Bird Cherry and the Weeping 

 Cherry; the Judas tree; the Quinces and Medlars (par- 

 ticularly Mespilus Smithii) ; the varieties of the Scotch and 

 common Laburnums : the Daphnes, the Deutzias, the various 

 kinds of Lilac, and numerous other rather dwarf shrubs for 

 the embellishment of the margins of groups, &c. ; the various 

 kinds of Pyrus from the great P. vestita to the handsome 

 Chinese Pear and J apan Quince ; the Rose Acacia ; not to 

 mention many other useful species. 



The common Stages Horn Sumach succeeds so well in 

 the small town garden that it deserves a word of praise. 

 It does not grow so gross as to require clipping, and retains 

 its verdure without taint long after that miserable town 

 tree the Lime has parted with it ; but it is apt to produce 

 suckers too abundantly. Amongst deciduous flowering 

 shrubs, the Althea would seem to be the king. With 

 attention it should form a telling object in all parts where 

 the bottom is dry. By " attention,^^ I mean planting it so 

 as to develope it into a specimen, and not thrusting it 

 promiscuously amongst rough and mixed shrubs, which 

 may obscure it from the sun or unduly rob it at the 

 root. 



Lii'iodendron tulipifera, the Tulip tree, seems perfectly 

 at home in city parks or gardens, and being a handsome 

 and distinct tree in every way deserves to be planted largely 

 in such places. Sophora japonica forms a grand tree in 

 the neighbourhood of London, and has the valuable property 

 of never seeming to suff'er from drought, no matter how 

 dry the soil, but retains its verdure to the end of the season. 

 It therefore merits an important place in all our parks and 



