DECORATIVE PLANTING. 
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home, where little care seemed taken to make it so; and yet with 
an air of comfort, and even elegance, that others, with wealth lav¬ 
ished upon them, and a professional gardener in constant employ, 
with flowers, and shrubs, and trees in profusion, yet all failing to 
convey the same impression of a pleasant home ? Be assured that 
the former (though by accident it may be) is the better model of 
the two. A well-cut lawn, a few fine trees, a shady back-ground 
with comfortable-looking out-buildings, are the essentials; and 
walks, shrubs, and flowers, only the embellishments and finishing 
touches of the picture. Only the finishing touches—but what a 
charm of added expression and beauty there may be in those per¬ 
fecting strokes ! How a verdant gate-way arch frames the common 
walk into a picture view ; how a long opening of lawn gives play¬ 
room for the sunlight to smile and hide among the shadows of bor¬ 
dering shrubs and trees; how an opening here, in the shrubs, 
reveals a pretty neighborhood vista : how a flower-bed there, 
brightens the lawn like a smile on the face of beauty ; how a swing 
suspended from the strong, outstretched arm of a noble tree attracts 
the children, whose ever-changing groups engage the eye and inter¬ 
est the heart; how a delicate foliaged tree, planted on yonder mar- 
gin, glows with the light of the afternoon sun, or with airy undula¬ 
tions trembles against the twilight sky, till it seems neither of the 
earth or the sky, but a spirit of life wavering between earth and 
heaven! 
Let us, then, define Decorative Planting to be the art of pic¬ 
ture making and picture framing, by means of the varied forms of 
vegetable growth. 
