EVERGREEN ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
483 
plants, which, when judiciously arranged and combined 
in the summer, will alter the whole character of their 
grounds. We have in onr eye at this" moment, many 
tine places, both on this river and in different parts of 
the country, where large green-houses and conservatories 
are kept up all winter, at a great expense, and where 
the plants literally “ waste their fragrance on the desert 
air,” as the families are away in cities at too great a 
distance to admit their flowers being sent to them. 
These very places in summer present a very unat- 
tractive and meagre appearance, being planted simply 
with the older and less beautiful trees and shrubs — in 
many cases with little or no flower garden. The Came- 
lias, Azalias, Geraniums, and other plants being stowed 
away out of sight, until the return of another winter, 
when they will again bloom for the benefit, solely, of the 
gardener and his friends. 
W ere these same houses at a consumption of one-half 
or one-fifth the amount of fuel and labor, devoted to the 
cultivation (or rather to the preservation, for they re- 
quire no cultivation or attention in the winter beyond 
an occasional watering), of half-hardy evergreens and 
tender plants, the compensation and enjoyment from 
them in summer would be ten-fold that derived from 
the usual occupation of plant-houses ; and in cases 
where families are permanent residents of the country, 
let them devote a portion of their green-houses to this 
purpose, or have some arrangement of pits as we have 
above described. 
We must bear in mind one fact: that as excellent 
models as the English are in all matters pertaining to 
country life, yet they use their places only in the winter, 
and we, as a general rule, only in the summer ; while 
it is, therefore, very important for them to have their 
grounds and green-houses adorned with those plants and 
shrubs which will make it most agreeable and delight- 
ful at the season when they are at home, in the winter, 
