WORTHY OF GENERAL CULTURE. 11 
but they detract greatly from the beauty of the ■grounds. A broad expanse of grass is certainly more beautiful 
than large and useless areas of gravel; and a bed of flowers relieved by bright green grass is a thousand times 
more charming than it would be if surrounded by gravel walks, and in dry weather is far pleasanter to walk 
upon. Even those walks required by the necessities of travel—and necessity is the only excuse for making a 
walk anywhere—should be hidden from view as much as possible. 
Trees and Shrubs. — Next in importance to good grass on the lawn, is the planting of trees and shrubs. 
Perhaps no subject presents greater difficulties to the amateur than this. As we said before, the tendency is to 
plant too much rather than too little; the trees arc so small at first that it seems expedient to the owner to 
scatter them thickly all over the grounds. The bad results of this kind of planting are not apparent until the 
trees have made a few years’growth, and 
then a radical thinning out is seldom re¬ 
sorted to, as few people can be induced to 
ent down vigorous young trees, the grow¬ 
ing of which they have watched with so 
much interest. 
It is by no means easy to make set 
rules for planting, but generally, the 
larger growing trees and shrubs should 
fringe the outer edges of the lawn, so as 
not to crowd out or hide from view the 
smaller and finer ones, which should be 
placed in front of them. Xo tree of large 
and spreading growth should be planted 
on grounds of less than half an acre, es¬ 
pecially if there are trees planted on the 
sidewalk or along the street, as these will 
ultimately furnish all the shade needed. 
Far better results can be obtained on 
small places by planting low-growing 
trees and shrubs; but the old system of 
dotting a few of the commoner shrubs 
all over the lawn is the worst use that 
can be made of them. Shrubs should be 
used freely and in masses, their beauty 
and variety are not sufficiently appre¬ 
ciated; they are invaluable in landscape- 
planting, and in their blooming season, 
they are incomparably finer and more 
effective than anything that can be pro¬ 
duced by summer bedding. June is pre¬ 
eminently the month of shrubs, but 
there is no reason that the shrubbery 
should be monotonous and uninteresting 
throughout the summer and fall months, 
as it is, in too many cases. The season 
of blooming is so varied that, with care, 
groups or belts could be planted to follow 
each other, in flowering, from March to 
October. The shrubs should not be hud¬ 
dled together in compact, broken masses, 
as is so often done, but planted in irregular groups, forming nooks and glades and allowing room for the full 
development of each individual. These bays and open spaces afford precisely the proper degree of shelter for 
Lilies and many other fine hardy plants, which bloom in the late summer after the shrubs are done flowering. 
Broad, unbroken expanses of lawn should be left so as to leave open vistas from the principal windows of 
the house, and all unsightly views should be closed out with trees or shrubs. 
Architectural Gardening of all sorts should as a rule be carefully avoided. A terrace, whether of stone 
or earth, is an abomination and is ruinous to the beauty as well as to the comfort and convenience of any place, 
except the nature of the ground be such as to render it unavoidable. A beautiful green sward sweeping up to 
the entrance porch is far more natural and pleasing. Fountains, summer houses, statuary and vases all come 
under this head. If good, they are costly; but frequently they are mere shams, made of materials that will not 
endure our changeable climate, and in a very short time become dilapidated and shabby. Such things, consid- 
CUT-I.EAF WEEPING BIRCH. 
