mm; 
Wliitman 
dmirably adapted to garden boundaries, whether marking the individual paths and beds, 
hole area. Here arborvitee is used for the outer hedge and barberry for the walk borders 
SHEARED TREES and HEDGES for the FORMAL GROUNDS 
A Centuries Old Practice IVhose Examples Range from the Severely Plain Clipped Botdt) 
to the Figures of Birds and Beasts and Ships 
ROBERT S. LEMMON 
S OMEWHERE about 
eighteen hundred years 
ago, Pliny the Younger 
owned a villa in Tuscany of 
which he was conceivedly 
proud. Even in those long 
gone days men wrote of 
homes and gardens, so it is 
not surprising that we should 
find among the letters which 
the author of the Epistultz 
wrote to his friends an in¬ 
teresting contribution to the 
literature of landscaping. 
The letter was to Apollinaris, 
and describes the gardens 
connected with this Tuscan 
country place: 
“In front of the Portico,” 
wrote Pliny, “is a sort of 
Terrace, embellished with 
various figures, and bounded 
by a Box Hedge, from which 
you descend by an easy slope, 
adorned with the representa¬ 
tions of divers animals in 
Box, cut into numberless dif¬ 
ferent figures, together with a 
plantation of shrubs prevent- 
Hewitt 
Privet is one of the favorite shrubs for shearing in this country. With 
care and time it can be clipped to a variety of forms, of which two of the 
simpler are shown here 
ed by the shears from run¬ 
ning up too high; the whole 
is fenced by a wall, covered 
with Box rising in different 
ranges to the top. . . . 
Having passed through these 
winding alleys, you enter a 
straight walk, which breaks 
out into a variety of others 
divided off by Box Hedges. 
In one place you have a little 
meadow; in another the Box 
is cut into a thousand dif¬ 
ferent forms; sometimes into 
letters expressing the name 
of the master; sometimes that 
of the artificer; whilst here 
and there little Obelisks rise 
intermixed alternately with 
Fruit Trees. ...” 
So there you have it—an 
eighteen - hundred - year - old 
precedent for sheared trees 
and hedges. Topiary work 
they call it now, but though 
the name has changed, it still 
retains its oddness, its for¬ 
mality and its wellnigh limit- 
(Continued on page 52) 
