THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GLIDE. 



29 



preponderance of deciduous kinds I 

 used, because they are the cheapest, 

 that there can be no solidity in the 

 scenery, and little to comfort the eye 

 during five months of the year. The 

 planter must not only exercise judg- 

 ment as to the choice of species 

 adapted to the soil, but he must know- 

 enough of the habits of each, and the 

 best varieties of each, to insure the 

 production of a certain harmonious- 

 ness twenty, thirty, or fifty years 

 hence, for some of his trees will not 

 show their true character for a long 

 while to come, and if immediate 

 effect alone be studied, the after- 

 growth may convert to a confusion 

 what may for the first few years be 

 a very agreeable system of grouping. 

 It happens that botanical systems of 

 grouping generally accord with the 

 demands of pictorial taste, and if 

 there were no exceptions to this 

 general fact, all the requirements 

 of landscape gardening could be 

 reduced to rules of the simplest pos- 

 sible nature. But the exceptions are 

 so many, that it needs great experi- 

 ence and prudent forethought to 

 adopt a botanical system in planting; 

 where it can be adopted the advan- 

 tages are many. First among them 

 we may name the adaptation of the 

 soil in large breadths to certain 

 groups ; thus where peat can be 

 used extensively, the shrubs and 

 trees of the great division of erica- 

 ceous plants may be brought together 

 in masses, a plan which is naturally 

 followed in the planting of the Ameri- 

 can garden. Deep, fertile, sandy 

 loams would accommodate a greater 

 number of botanical groups than any 

 other staple, but even on chalk, 

 hungry sand, and clay hollows, 

 somewhat of a botanical system must 

 be followed, for the simple reason 

 that the trees severally adapted to 

 such soils have mutual relationships. 

 The learned director of the lloyal 

 Gardens, at Kew, has carried out the 

 botanical system in a way to satisfy 

 the demands of taste in a very satis- 

 factory manner, in those great com- 

 partments of lilacs, spirteas, viburnums, 

 aud other flowering trees and shrubs, 

 and the examples afforded by the 

 planting at Kew, show how the plan 



simplifies the work of the planter, 

 and enables him to select for his pur- 

 pose species best adapted to the soil 

 on which he is to plant. 



But the circumstances under 

 which trees and shrubs are planted, 

 are so many, that in little less than a 

 treatise could justice be done to it. 

 We have the forest, the park, the 

 shrubbery, the garden, the road of 

 approach, and the way to the wilder- 

 ness, among the principal scenes on 

 which the planter is to bestow his 

 labours. Though the planting will 

 be in such a different fashion in each 

 case, it is nevertheless true that cer- 

 tain harmonies should be observed as 

 common to all, and indiscriminate 

 mixtures will invariably prove to be 

 indiscriminate mistakes. Whatever 

 may be the beauty of individual 

 specimens — and well-placed specimens 

 work wonders in adding to the variety 

 and interest of the scenery — yet the 

 main features will be the groups, and 

 perhaps the greatest of all achieve- 

 ments in this department is that of 

 forming effective clumps and rich 

 belts and masses. It will illustrate 

 the theory of planting, if the reader 

 will imagine full-grown elms in the 

 foreground and silver birches in the 

 distance. Planting of this sort 

 would be a gross violation of taste, 

 but reverse their positions, and the 

 graceful outlines of the birches are 

 brought out to perfection; and we 

 experience delight in viewing their 

 silvery masts upon the rich deep 

 back ground of the elms. The 

 various tints of green in broad 

 masses may be disposed so as to 

 intensify the beauty of each by 

 judicious grouping ; and the har- 

 mony thus resulting may be 

 enhanced by the addition of sub- 

 ordinated touches of orange, bronze, 

 grey, and silver, of which numerous 

 shades are furnished by our now 

 copious lists of hardy trees. The 

 highest attainments of art in gar- 

 dening are to be sought in works of 

 this class, and the man who can pro- 

 duce a grand scene, harmonious 

 in its several elements, and rich 

 with variety as a whole, is entitled 

 to higher praise than that be- 

 stowed upon the most successful 



