SHE UBS AND TREES. 
115 
part below, and if one side of the 
Fig. 25. hedge is towards the north, that side 
will be deficient in sunlight also. 
A form where the top is as broad 
as the bottom is therefore bad. Be- 
sides, a flat top with vertical sides 
is a clumsy form, and even were it 
not liable to lose its foliage at the bottom, would not be desirable. 
It is difficult to keep a full and healthy growth at the base of such 
hedges after the first five years of their growth, though the hem- 
lock and arbor-vitass are more manageable in this respect than 
many other hedge-plants. The best form for a hedge is the pyra- 
midal, as in Fig. 25. This has the benefit of an equal distribution 
of light from all directions on the two sides of the hedge. It is 
also the simplest form to make and keep in order ; and is recom- 
mended for evergreen hedges or screens in ordinary exposures. 
But the thin sharp points at the top, and at the bottom on each 
side, are much more liable to injury, and thus mar the continuity 
of the hedge lines, than the rounded form of Fig. 23. This 
objection may be remedied by cutting off the top so as to 
leave a thickness of about six inches of level surface there, and 
the same of vertical surface at the sides, as in the section Fig. 26. 
And as a graceful concave surface is prettier than a straight 
one, the sides above may be hollowed slightly, as shown in 
the same cut. This form tends to give strength and density of 
foliage to the bottom of the hedge, by exposing it more fully to 
the light from above. Fig. 27 shows the same principle applied 
to a tall hedge-screen, such as may be made with the Norway 
spruce. Very perfect high hedges may be made with this tree in 
the simple cone form with less labor than the form indicated by 
Fig. 27 will require, but the latter is the best in principle, as well as 
the most beautiful. The different lights and shadows which fall on 
contiguous curved surfaces, or different planes, may be studied with 
good effect in forming hedges. Fig. 28 is a very pretty and prac- 
ticable form which we suggest for those who are willing to take 
the trouble to perfect it. 
Where one side of a hedge has a northern exposure, or is much 
7 
Fig, 26. 
