A ND G R 0 UNB S. 
167 
by annuals graded in size in the same manner as above indicated 
for a bed of cannas. The circular border of cultivated ground be- 
tween the dining-room bay-window and the hemlock border may 
also be filled with annuals, graded from those that grow only a few 
inches high next the grass, to an outer circle made with flowering 
plants from four to’ six feet high. Bed 7 is intended for an assort- 
ment of geraniums. At 8 is a good place for the pendulous silver- 
fir ; and at 9 for Sargent’s hemlock, AMes ca?iadensis inverta^ trained 
to a straight stick, and kept small by pruning. 
On a line with the side-walls of the house, and twenty feet in 
front, two sycamore maples are designated. We do not intend to 
recommend this variety as any better or more beautiful than the 
sugar, red-bud, or Norway maples, or than the horse-chestnut, but 
it represents a type of trees with formal outlines, and rich masses 
of foliage, which are appropriate for such places ; — unless the style 
of the house is picturesque ; in which case elms, birches, and other 
loose growing trees would be more appropriate. The centre group 
of evergreens is mostly composed of common and well-known 
sorts, the points being representations of the arbor-vitae family, 
and the centre of the taller hemlocks. Lawson’s cypress is still a 
rare tree, and its hardiness is doubtful north of Philadelphia. 
Where it may not be safely used, a full-foliaged specimen of the 
Norway spruce may be substituted. South of New York, near 
the sea-coast, we would also substitute the Glypto-strobus smensis 
pendula for the arbor-vitae plicata. While these trees are small 
they will appear insignificant in so large a bed j but we advise no 
one to trust himself to plant trees more thickly than they should 
eventually grow, on the plea that when they crowd each other a 
part may be removed ; for however sound the theory, it is rarely 
carried out in practice. Besides, no trees are so beautiful as those 
which have an unchecked expansion from the beginning j and this 
is especially the case with evergreens, some of which never recover 
from the malformations produced by being crowded during the 
first ten or fifteen years of their growth. Therefore, let the open 
spaces between the permanent trees, in the beds which are out- 
lined for cultivation, be filled during their minority with showy 
annuals or bedding plants ; — taking care not to plant so near to 
