178 



A SELECTION OF THE BEST TREES 



that I would call tlie attention of the town-gardening por- 

 tion of my readers. We all know how difficult it is to 

 get any sort of an evergreen to grow well in towns ; those 

 with the best character for good behaviour within the vile 

 influences of smoke are too apt to become hopelessly deci- 

 duous. The Japan Privet may be tried with safety in a 

 back garden, far into what Cobbett called the great 

 " wen." Having the advantage of flowering so sweetly and 

 freely in addition to being a shrub with comely leaves 

 and good habit, I am sure those who so plant it will 

 not be disappointed. The remaining kinds are mostly 

 those that are well known and frequently used — the Aucuba, 

 Holly, in great variety, Box, and Rhododendrons, Ivies, 

 Berberises, particularly Darwini, and the common Laurel 

 — often cut off, however, and not so good or hardy as the 

 Aucuba ; the Caucasian Laurel, better and hardier than the 

 common kind, Euonymus japonicus, Mahonias, and several 

 kinds of Yuccas. 



All these are known to do very fairly if properly planted 

 in pretty good positions. Considering how excellently the 

 common Aucuba grows in our towns, we may look forward 

 with much hope to what may be done with the numerous 

 new and fine kinds as soon as they are common enough to 

 be tried extensively in city gardening. But the town- 

 planter cannot be too often cautioned against the over use 

 of evergreens — there is scarcely a suburb in which thousands 

 of pounds worth of them are not to be at any time seen 

 in a dying state ! Even the kinds above enumerated are 

 often seen to languish and die after a year or two in a 

 west central garden, like Mecklenburg-square, where the 

 deciduous trees are fine enough to freshen the heart of a 

 North American Indian should he happen to pass by. 



Anxious to promote as far as possible permanent and noble 

 rather than fleeting and mean styles of park decoration, I ven- 

 ture to add the names of some fine distinct trees that deserve 

 to be more widely planted in our city parks and gardens, if 

 only to vary the monotony caused by the profuse planting 

 of well known kinds. The Oaks ofl^er an example of the 

 arboreal riches within the reach of planters, and the Ame- 



