no means be destroyed, for in the lawn spaces
adjoining trees or woodland the moss is right and harmonious.

There are paths for the garden and paths for the wood. A mistaken zeal
that would insist on the trimness of the straight-edged garden walk in
woodland or wild is just as much misplaced as if by slothful oversight
an accumulation of dead leaves or other debris of natural decay were
permitted to remain in the region of formal terrace or parterre.

Heath paths should be made by either planting or sowing. The common ling
(_Calluna vulgaris_) makes the best turf. If the ground is sown it
should be of nearly pure sandy peat, or weeds would be troublesome. If
the path is to be made by planting, it should be done with two-year-old
seedlings--nothing larger--planted about 6 inches apart. The path when
grown should be mown with a machine once a year, in autumn after the
blooming time of the heath. There must be no grass.

CHAPTER V

TREES AND SHRUBS IN POOR SOILS

As there is vegetation to suit nearly all natural conditions, so those
who find they have to undertake planting in poor, dry, hungry sands and
gravels will find that there are plenty of trees and shrubs that can be
used, though the choice is necessarily a more restricted one than they
might make on better land. The very fact of the fewer number of
available trees and shrubs may even be a benefit in disguise, as by
obliging the planter to be more restricted in his choice the planting
scheme will be all the more harmonious.

As to trees, Holly, Thorn, Juniper, Birch, Scotch Fir, and Mountain Ash
are found wild on the poorest soils, and will even grow in almost pure
sand. Oaks, though they never grow to the dimensions of the Oak of loamy
woodlands, are abundant on poor soils, where they have a character of
their own that is full of pictorial value. The lovely _Amelanchier_,
daintiest of small trees, revels in sandy woods, as does also the Bird
Cherry, another good native tree, while the Wild Cherry becomes a forest
tree of large size and of loveliest bloom. Evergreen or _Holm Oak_ and
_Arbutus_ are excellent in the south of England, enjoying the warmth and
winter dryness of light soils.

Garden shrubs in general can be grown, though not so luxuriantly as on
better soils, but some classes are especially successful on poor land
such as _Genista virgata_. There are the Cistuses and Heaths, with
Lavender and Rosemary, in the drier parts, and in the wette