November 6, 1890 ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
595 
“ TVTOT quite all Chrysanthemums, if you please, Mr. Editor, nor 
JL \ even all fruit or all Orchids, Roses, Daffodils, or herbaceous 
plants. Something of each of these if you like, and a good deal 
of any of them at appropriate seasons, but do not forget there are 
trees.” Thus writes one who enjoys his garden and all that is 
cultivated in it, but he evidently thinks that the flowers of our 
stoves, greenhouses, and gardens receive the lion’s share of atten¬ 
tion in these days, that the fruit “ boom ” is being sounded loudly, 
but that trees for use and ornament are not having a corresponding 
share of attention. We are inclined to think our correspondent is 
right, but in giving our adherence to the principle embodied in his 
■short, terse note it is with no wish that there should be any cessation 
of interest in flower and fruit culture, but only that more attention 
should be bestowed on trees. 
“ Do not forget there are trees ! ” Those six words we suspect 
are intended to convey something more than a reminder—namely, 
a delicately suggested reproach, not to ourselves alone, or perhaps 
mainly, but to proprietors of many estates that might be improved 
and beautified by trees wisely chosen, well planted, and judiciously 
managed ; also to municipal and other authorities, on whom 
devolves the duty of providing and maintaining public parks, also 
of planting trees in and near towns for rendering them more 
pleasant to their populations. For ourselves we do not forget 
there are trees. We have of late had attention directed to their 
planting and management by able contributors, and we have much 
more that we think both interesting and useful to record in these 
pages. We have long regretted to see trees that have for years 
imparted grandeur to many a fine demesne going not gradually but 
rapidly to decay, and few or no attempts made to provide successors. 
Also it is not indicative of good management to see, as all who are 
in the least observant cultivators must see, the acres, even miles, 
of scrubby waste that might have been occupied with trees hand¬ 
some or useful or both, for if the combination of beauty with utility 
can be seen anywhere, it is in thrifty plantations of appropriate 
trees. Many examples prove this in different parts of the country, 
for happily the neglect of arboriculture is not apparent every¬ 
where, though unfortunately it is far too common. 
Again, where planting has been done during recent years in public 
and private parks and gardens, it is nothing less than deplorable to 
see in so many of them what can only be fittingly described 
as the reckless method in which the work was done, and the subse¬ 
quent ruin of thousands of trees. Obviously if the proprietor of 
an estate wishes to turn it into a jungle, he has a right to do so. 
He pleases himself for the time, but of necessity must leave a wild 
unproductive thicket behind him ; whereas he who proceeds on 
different lines, in accordance with sound principles, provides noble 
memorials of his thought and care to be enjoyed by succeeding 
generations. But even on the basis of private action—that 
he who pays the piper has a right to choose the tune—we have 
the right when the public finds the money in the form of rates 
for planting and maintaining public parks, to protest against the 
unscientific and unsystematic manner in which the planting has 
been in most eases done, and the subsequent spoliation of trees that 
has followed. “Bundle them in” appears in too many instances 
to have been the rule in the first place, and “let them alone ” the 
policy afterwards. Incalculable benefit has been conferred on 
No. 541.— Yol. XXI., Third Series, 
communities by the formati m of public parks in populous districts, 
but all the same, thousand} of pounds of public money have been 
unwisely spent in them, on trees and shrubs to be spoiled, and in a 
few years’ time not one tree out of a hundred will be worthy of its 
name. 
We do not in the least object to anything in the letter that has 
elicited these remarks. It is time that more attention was given 
to the planting of useful and beautiful deciduous trees, for beai- 
tiful many of them are which are little planted, as may be seen in 
those nurseries which contain rich collections. Conifers are hand 
some, and if judiciously planted effective, but in too many instances 
they have been so crowded into parks and gardens for “ immediate 
effect,” and deciduous trees either excluded or spoiled, that the 
result is neither cheerful nor agreeable, but funereal. We are glad 
that the Royal Horticultural Society has at last determined to 
elicit information on the subject of trees, even if at present 
restricted to Conifers. It is quite large enough and important 
enough for a Chiswick conference, but we rest more firmly 
than ever in the belief that the Society does not do the best 
for the public by the slow production and restricted distribu¬ 
tion of the information acquired at these conferences, and by 
lectures that few hear and which a comparatively small section 
of the horticultural community can ever see. Judging from 
the precis of Dr. Masters’ lecture on trees and shrubs in towns 
last week, it was most comprehensive, and could not be otherwise 
than full of instruction and valuable suggestions. Undoubtedly 
worthy of prompt and wide circulation, it must, under ordinary 
conditions, remain in obscurity for a considerable time, till the 
best planting season is over, and then it will not be seen except by 
a very small minority who might benefit by its teaching. That, 
however, does not concern ourselves. As above mentioned 
we have much matter on trees and shrubs awaiting publication. 
Among other competent men Mr. E. Luckhurst, who has planted 
trees extensively for use and ornament, and who is now engaged 
in estate improvement, writes thus on “ Tree and Shrub Groups : ” 
“ Taken in its literal sense of an assemblage of figures forming 
an artistic whole, the term group, as applied to an arrangement of 
trees and shrubs, is most expressive and appropriate. So pray 
remember, brother planters, that your grouping this season must 
be really artistic and not fanciful; and if you are sensible that 
your work is more likely to prove an outcome of fancy, and not an 
embodiment of cultivated taste, then do not venture rashly upon 
it, for every error will become more conspicuous and offensive 
with tree and shrub development, many a fault that is unseen by 
an ordinary observer at first becoming so accentuated by growth as 
to afford tangible evidence that a thing of beauty in the wrong 
place is certainly not a joy for ever. 
“But good taste may also make mistakes in planting by falling 
into the very common error of looking only to immediate effect, 
and planting much too thickly, with the inevitable result of crowd¬ 
ing in the course of two or three years, when beauty of form and 
individuality are soon lost, and the clump becomes a mere thicket. 
If immediate effect is insisted upon, let it be clearly understood 
how soon thinning will become necessary ; then first of all plant 
the permanent trees, and afterwards proceed to fill in the inter¬ 
mediate spaces, taking especial care to afford the permanent trees 
ample space for root and branch growth. When shelter only is 
required for the permanent trees, Larch or Pinus austriaca answer 
well, preference being usually given to Larch because of its greater 
value when cut. 
“ Before planting at all the whole matter should have most 
careful consideration, and the results will very much depend upon 
the decision arrived at, as well as upon the execution of the work. 
First of all try to grasp fully what you have to do, and then do it 
in the best possible manner. Let it not be thought that I wish to 
see a garden or park with every tree or shrub standing out simply 
as plain and precise as the lay figures in an artist’s studio. There is 
No. 2197 .—Vol. LXXXIII,, Old Series. 
