BROAD ROUND-HEADED TREES. 



89 



qualities in tlie way of coloiir^ and from their rapidity 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 

 tiU 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 colour. The same remark applies to the Ileiff or 

 Evergreen Oak, which^ however, is of some importance 

 for its foreign air, being 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 Scotland), " the ilex forms a bushy evergreen 

 tree exceeding the middle size. The general appearance 

 of the species, even when well grown, is that of an im- 

 mense bush. It should be planted in the more orna- 

 mental 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 ascending 

 trunks or more frequently numerous trunk-like limbs, 

 and its tabulated, horizontally -spreading secondary 

 branches, all contribute to give it a very unusual and 

 striking configuration. It harmonizes finely mth the 

 level architectm'al lines of the mansion-house and ter- 

 races, and seems to repeat them in aerial perspective. 

 It contrasts well with all other sorts of trees; it also 

 makes up striking groups in the park and dressed 

 grounds. We regard it as a matter of regret that, in 



