484 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING-. 
jet the reverse of this is true with us. Our object 
should be to make our places as gay and interesting as 
possible, at those portions of the year when we live at 
them. What advantage is it to plant the beautiful varie- 
ties of double and single thorns, the Judas tree, the 
Forsythia, or the Magnolias in those places which the 
families or owners do not reach until the season of their 
inflorescence is past ; where one lives in the country 
from June to October, the whole force should be ap- 
plied to those plants, shrubs, and flowers which bloom 
during these four months ; and as a majority of our 
country gentlemen do not get out to their places much 
before June, and are apt to become very restless after 
the early part of October, we think a selection of those 
plants should be made most useful and attractive during 
this time ; and we do not know anything more effective 
than the proper mingling of some of the large showy 
exotics and tender evergreens we have mentioned. 
Of course we do not suggest this as general, but merely 
to those — and their number is now large — who have a 
taste for planting the newer and more striking conifers. 
In concluding this section w r e will merely add : that 
with one or two exceptions, we have described only 
those plants and shrubs which we have ourselves seen, 
and which, in almost every instance, we have growing 
upon our own place. We believe that a correctness in 
description, and an honest statement of the merits and 
demerits of each plant, will, more than anything else, 
contribute to the main end we have in view — the ex- 
tension of the taste for planting the newer deciduous 
and evergreen trees. 
THE NEWER EVERGREEN ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
Abies. The Spruce Firs. 
Abies alba nana (the Dwarf White spruce fir — or Prostrate 
White spruce) is only a dwarf variety of our native White 
