The Erwit rant. A wooded roadside gives us valuable hints as to the treatment of our front poll. Above, there are the crowns of large trees ; smallor ones and shrubs screen the trunks completely ; on the ground are flowering plants leaning and glowing rich with color against a background of This is what we want in our side planting—trees, shrubs and a border of flowers wandering along the edge of the grass in a sinuous line, winch forms little has and gentle swells, such as grace the edge of the woods.
T raps plontiny Tees from• the 1171d. How and what to plant, nature will plainly suggest. If you live near enough to choose your trees and bring them in from the woods you are indeed fortunate. You can judge by seeing how the native things grow, winch ones are suited to your needs. Notice their preferences as to soil and exposure to sunlight. Such trees cost nothing except time and labor, and they contribute ti the health and enjoyment of the enthusiastic planter. Perhaps you will be fortunate enough to get dogwood. magnolia, shad bush. or some other showy trees. You will find few trees more satisfactory than reel maples and American elms. The native plants we set in our gardens need scarcely know they have changed places.
Illren to Set Tries. The best times to transplant are early spring and late fall, when the soil is mellow and the tree is dormant. But so tenacious of life are most plants that they live if only the roots are kept moist, even if moved in the growing season. Small young trees are most easily and safely transplanted. But by the perfecting of methods and mechanical contrivances large trees are now successfully trans planted. The present climax of this art or science is the moving of large evergreens in midsummer. These methods are rather costly but they give immediate results.
Showy Trees. Single trees of special beauty or interest may be planted alone, if only they keep to the side or to the back, so as not to get in the way of the outlook from the house, or obtrude themselves and distract the attention from the center of interest. Plant showy trees and horticultural forms sparingly. Do not make your place an outdoor museum of weeping trees, cut-leaved shrubs and purple beeches.
11 mid Dpire.. These should be at the side and where they ap pear to be necessary. Though curved, they should be sufficiently direct to waste little time. Walks should skirt the central lawn. and lead one up to the house by easy, dignified curves. They should not wind, unless shrubbery is set for them to wind among. There is nothing interesting about walking in a path that simply wriggles through an open green s•ard. The curves heron] should be concealed by clumps of shrubbery set in the inner ,,choo/. Grounds. The planting of school grounds should be based upon the same fundamental principles as govern home planting. Where possible, a lawn in front of the school house should be kept open. Side planting of trees, in clumps or singly, with informal grouping of shrubs and dower borders, is the most artistic and economical plan. Use permanent things that are easy to care tor, especially in summer. Out-buildinp's should be screened by clumps of shrubbery. The play-ground should be kept open. Shrubbery grouped near the school house, and flowers and ferns growing against its foundation give the place an air that is Lome and most attractive. A general representation of the native trees
in a school yard gives not only a pleasing variety, but also an oppor tunity for pupils to become familiar with different kinds of trees, and to know each one in different seasons of the year.
Pork Plentiny. The planting of parks is generally placed now in the hands of landscape gardeners, who reflect in their work the tendency of the age to put away formal things and to follow nature's lead. So we have but a step to go from the side where carpet-bedding and other conventional methods hold sway, to find ourselves in woodlands un touched by art, unless it be art to keep the beauties of wild scenery and take away its unpleasant features.
The great parks of cities are comitT. to be managed with consum mate skill. The small city square is necessarily fmainal, with its inter secting walks, its flaming beds of cannas and geraniums. For the exile from the green country who goes out of a stuffy city flat to get a breath of air in the cool of the evening, I could wish that among the elms and horse chestnuts and ailanthus trees there grew in that park one apple tree, gnarled and old, and sweet with blossoms in the spring. Anat a vision of days gone by ! One whiff of fragrance from such a tree. one look at its blossoms, would keep me young and hopeful. I am sure, mita May conies again ! neLapd.seape Cemetery. The plat iting of cemeteries is an index to the intellectual status of a. community. It is always conservative. for people are loyal to traditions when they turn their minds to solemn things. There is, however, a distinct evolution visible. as one passes frolic the oldest toward the newest parts of cemeteries long established. In the oldest parts symbols abound. Myrtle and life-everlasting clamber over graves. forms of willows, and elms and birches bend above them. Spiry evergreens point heavenward ; others clipped into grotesque shapes, invite to thoughts somber as their foliage. Rowan trees, which used to be planted to keep spirits, yews, from olden time the symbol of grief, the picket fence and its padlocked gate,—all these things perpetuate ideas which are coalde,and Some of them even barbaric.
The race has outgrown many of its old superstitions. The new cem etery, called the " " park or landscape cemetery, reflects the change. Its spirit is to solace rather than to harrow the feelings of the liv ing. Instead of the army of gleaming obelisks, there is a marked tendency toward more modest stones, and the invonspictions marker. The new cemetery is putting away the formal, the fantastic and the It will be in future a memorial ])ark, where trees, and shrubs, and Bow ers are with all the landscape artist's skill into a park whose every line and feature shall invite to calm meditation, to pure and ex alted thoughts. It will be a place where one may come out of the tur moil of a, busy life, and find rest and comfort and serenity of spirit. Green grass, singing birds, blowing waters, and the breath of winds among trembling leaves—what a. place to lie down and rest in, "after life's fitful fever !'' Let us do what we can to make the nearest cemetery a beauti ful, nature-like, attractive place, where the living will find rest and uplift of spirit.