311 
AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 
OF THE 
STRAITS 
AND 
FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 
No. 8.] AUGUST, 1908. [Vol. VII. 
ORNAMENTAL TREES AND SHRUBS. 
Effective landscape gardening is an art which is only acquired 
by considerable study, taste and judgment on the part of the persons 
engaged in its excution. 
The art has reference chiefly to the laying out of extensive grounds 
and large estates and the arrangement and planting of trees and shrubs 
in such a manner as to produce the best effect. Although the gardens 
surrounding the majority of houses and bungalows in this country are not 
large enough to allow of landscape gardening in the true sense of the 
word still the principles of the art can be applied in the arrangement 
of flowering trees and shrubs and other ornamental plants. 
For example tall trees and shrubs should be kept in the back 
ground with smaller subjects in the foreground and so arranged as not 
to obstruct the view. Again straight lines should be avoided where 
possible and all attempts at formality should be guarded against. This 
applies more to large grounds as it is understood that in a small garden 
the formal style of gardening must of necessity be introduced. 
In planning a garden, be it large or small, definite ideas are neces- 
sary and no attempt should be made unless the utmost forethought 
has been given and the results calculated to prove tolerably certain, 
in fact a rough sketch of the grounds should be prepared and the work of 
making the garden guided thereby. A climate like ours offers so many 
advantages for effective and ornamental gardening and the number of 
ornamental and flowering trees and shrubs is so great that the work 
of making a beautiful garden is comparatively easy. It is therefore 
surprising that in one’s travels one sees so very few well arranged and 
effective gardens. This may be due to a lack of interest in horticulture 
which is unfortunate in the sight of the true lover of plants and flowers 
and also from a hygienic stand point as an hour’s gardening in the cool 
of the morning is a most enjoyable and healthful exercise, or it may be 
due to giving too much initiative to the native gardener whose knowl- 
edge extends to the cutting of the grass on the lawn but his ideas of 
general gardening are of an extremely rudimentary kind. 
