140 



PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS . 



outside of a plantation, or the lower edge of a bank, 

 it is often highly ornamental. The forms of the black 

 Italian and American poplars are of a rather inferior 

 description; but some members of the family have 

 -good qualities in the way of color, and from their ra- 

 pidity of growth are often extremely useful. 



Of broad-headed evergreens, the Yew is one of the 

 finest of our native trees. It is of a spreading habit 

 and low stature^ seldom attaining to a considerable 

 size on a lawn till it is of great age. Many of the 

 yews in our pleasure-grounds are probably the remains 

 of hedges, or trees that have escaped the shears of the 

 topiary artist, these having been his principal material 

 in old times. It must be admitted that the yew is less 

 valuable for its form than for its color. The same re- 

 mark applies to the Ilex or Evergreen Oak, which, 

 however, is of some importance for its foreign air, be- 

 ing the best representative of the olive which we have 

 in this country. " In the warmer parts of England 

 and Ireland," says Loudon, (and we may add in Scot- 

 land,) " the ilex forms a bushy evergreen tree, exceed- 

 ing the middle size. The general appearance of the 

 species, even when well grown, is that of an immense 

 bush. It should be planted in the more ornamental 

 woods of the park, as well as in the dressed grounds ; 

 and it forms an interesting variety in the shrubbery." 



The Cedar of Lebanon is at once a very celebrated 

 and a very admirable tree. Its great breadth, its as- 

 cending trunk, or, more frequently, numerous trimk- 

 like limbs, and its tabulated, horizontally-spreading 

 secondary branches, all. contribute to give it a very 

 unusual and striking configuration. It harmonizes 

 finely with the level, architectural lines of the mansion 



