The Garden Magazine, August, 1921 
Jb / 
PALM CANYON, CALIFORNIA 
“I have seen Palms in their native habitat where they looked very well indeed but 1 have seldom seen them at home in a city garden” 
religious gardens is needed, but the list would be all but inter- 
minable. Since the difference in their characters seems to 
have been overlooked of late, it may not be out of place to 
consider only the broad, general classification into city gardens 
and country gardens. 
Where City Planting is in Mind 
A FEW standards of propriety can be established for such 
a grouping, although the types, with good taste, may be 
more or less intermingled; for it is quite conceivable that, 
with space enough, one may bring into the city garden a 
breath of the country. It is this very fact that leads to im- 
propriety. In the effort to bring into the city some of the spirit 
of the open country trees and shrubs are used that are utterly 
out of place. 
In the city the use of such trees as Sycamores, Mountain 
Hemlocks, Sugar Pines, and Madornes for smaller gardens is like 
keeping a meadow lark in a cage. Certain animals take kindly 
to domestication, so do certain trees. Poplars, Yews, Hol- 
lies, Beeches, Lindens, and flowering fruits will be as con- 
tented in the city garden (speaking from the standpoint of 
character) as tabby on the hearth. A Cactus will always be a 
coyote in the kennel. 
From the long list of trees that will thrive in most cities it is 
not difficult to find enough for a garden. The problem is how to 
resist the temptation to over-indulge the love of variety, but 
this desire may not be gratified without loss. It is true that 
the need of color, cheer, golden green foliage, and the songs of 
birds is much greater in the city where smoke, dust, and the 
rattle of traffic transform a mere lawn into an oasis; but the 
squirrel in the cage is not more content in his confinement be- 
cause a linnet chirps in a prison near by, nor will a man who 
trudges wearily to and from his work be cheered by the sight of 
a Pine that mourns the solitude of the peaks. 
All trees were, of course, at one time natural growth, from 
which it may be argued that any tree that will thrive in the city 
may be used there. This is not true. Just as we, through the 
centuries, gradually have domesticated certain animals and failed 
to do so with others so have we, consciously or unconsciously, 
come to associate certain trees with human habitations. A 
leopard curled by the fireplace would be a beautiful sight but, 
until his entire character had changed, his presence there would 
be an anachronism. His every movement is of the wild places, 
and until he has changed from leopard to spotted cat he is out of 
place in the home. You may chain him there and he may 
live, but that is all. 
In the high sierra is a grove of Foxtail Pines. Approaching 
the Siberian Outposts on the slopes of Mt. Whitney the trail 
winds in and out amongst them. Their motionless masses, 
silhouetting serenity against the sparkling sky, “gaze gi- 
gantically down” upon the smaller denizens of the altitudes. 
Contentment and the peace of eternity are stamped upon 
them. You may chain one in your front yard and he may 
live, but that is all. You may have his branches, trunk, 
and roots, but his spirit will ever be in the high sierra, and 
one who knows his tribe will mourn with him for his departed 
freedom. 
It is not so with the Maple, Elm, Poplar, Hornbeam, Haw- 
thorn, Yew, Beech, Ash, Horse-chestnut, Hickory, Acacia, 
Magnolia, and certain varieties of Spruce, Cypress, Cedar, and 
Pine. Most of the nut and flowering fruit trees also are in 
harmony with the city garden. If you would have a garden in 
