There is apt to be a great uniformity in the selection of plants, more especially among the trees and bushes. The future should always be borne in mind in planting, and alas ! that is not always the case. Anything that will grow quickly is often put in, whereas a little patience and a much finer effect would be the result in the end. Privet grows faster than holly, but can the two results be compared ? There is a very fine old elm avenue in Ravenscourt; trees which the planter never saw in perfection, but which many generations have since enjoyed. But will the avenue of poplars in Finsbury Park have such a future ? After thirty-five years' growth they are considerable trees, but how long will they last? The plane does grow remarkably well, there is no denying, but is it necessary for that reason to exclude almost every other tree ? Ash trees thrive surprisingly. Some of the oaks take kindly to London, yet how few are planted. Richard Jefferies, that most delightful of writers on nature, bemoans the lack of English trees in the suburban gardens of London, and the same may be said of the parks to some extent. "Go round the entire circumference of Greater London," he writes, "and find the list ceaselessly repeated. There are acacias, sumachs, cedar deodaras, araucarias, laurels, planes, beds of rhododendrons, and so on." "If, again, search were made in these enclosures for English trees and English shrubs, it would be found that none have been introduced."
