ook silly beside a spreading chestnut. One must keep
proportion and suitability in mind.

"I'd never advise the planting of a group of evergreens close to a
house, and in the front yard. The effect is very gloomy indeed. Houses
thus surrounded are overcapped by such trees and are not only gloomy to
live in, but truly unhealthful. The chief requisite inside a house is
sunlight and plenty of it.

"There are no shrubs on the school grounds. You had spoken of doing that
but bulbs took up the attention of the girls this fall. And as for you
boys--you were attending to your own crops. Shrubbery is very pleasing
if properly placed. It is just the thing to fill in corners near
buildings, to help define the turns in walks, and to use as hedges.
Usually one shrub standing by itself is not nearly so pleasing as one
tree by itself. It has a squatty and isolated appearance. There is a
corner close by the school building where shrubs should go. Why?
Because the place looks bare and staring, and the building is very ugly
at that point; the shrubs would fill in the space, and make the building
look much better.

"As trees are chosen because of certain good points, so shrubs should
be. In a clump I should wish some which bloomed early, some which
bloomed late, some for the beauty of their fall foliage, some for the
colour of their bark and others for the fruit. Some spireas and the
forsythia bloom early. The red bark of the dogwood makes a bit of colour
all winter, and the red berries of the barberry cling to the shrub well
into the winter. This list of shrubs which Philip has made out will be a
help to you in this work.

PHILIP'S SHRUB TABLE
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COMMON NAME BOTANICAL NAME HEIGHT COLOUR SPECIAL POINTS
---------------------------------------------------------------------
_March_
Spice Bush _Benzoin_ 6-15 ft. Yellow Flowers appear
_odoriferum_ before leaves.
Crimson fruit
in fall. Aromatic
odour.
Daphne _Daphne
Mezereum_ 4 ft. Purple The only hardy deciduous
daphne. Plant in
light soil and in