LANDSCAPE IN CONNECTION WlTir TREE PLANTING. 



iiiul shrubs ; and when it is once properly nnderatood that no residence in the 

 modern style can have a chiiin to he considered as hiid out in pood taste in which 

 most, if not all, the trees and siinil>s employed, are not foreign to the vicinity, or 

 improved varieties of indigenous ones, the gronnds of every country-seat will 

 become an arboretum, dittering oidy in the nundjer of species which it contains. 



We have liad a scries of single trees and grouj^s ]>repared, to exhibit the 

 beauties and the faults committed by planters, as well as to illustrate the neces- 

 sity of looking forward to the well-ascertained effects that time will certainly 

 produce by the growth of certain descriptions of trees and shrubs, jilanted either 

 singly or together. Groups are often planted in scenery, yet seldom is it per- 

 formed in a satisfactory way. Attempts of this kind, in which the trees being all 

 of one size, and planted in the most circumspect mode, at measured distances, 

 would sometimes lead one to suspect they had been planned by using afoot rule. 



As the beauties and defects of grouping will be displayed to the eye in these 

 illustrations, we shall at once refer to our first plate; this will be followed by 

 fifteen other illustrations, in succession, and our brief remarks on landscape and 

 planting, will perhaps be more fully understood when the whole, having been 

 printed in this volume, shall be read consecutively by those who take pleasure in 

 this interesting topic. 



Groriping Trees. — In the arrangement of trees at the time of planting or thin- 

 ning, two principles recpiire to be respected : first, always to maintain a balance 

 in the composition ; and second, there should be form and variety in the groups 

 themselves. 



What is meant by maintaining a balance, may be thus explained : In a group, 

 and especially a small one, the centre should appear the highest. A group of 

 three (Fig. 1) is much more pleasing than if the lowest were placed in the centre, 

 as in Fig. 2. Again, three trees of different heights, so as to appear like steps, 

 one above another, forming a line, or nearly so, either at equal distances, or 

 otherwise (Fig. 5), would be much less beautiful than if arranged as in Fig. 4. 

 A group of five trees, or more, with one or two tall ones, placed near together, 

 and pretty central, though some may have crooked stems, yet, if they rise perpen- 

 dicularly, produce an agreeable and natural effect, as in Fig. 3. When two oidy 

 are planted, they should be placed at least so close together as to intermingle 

 their branches ; but the best effect is produced when two are placed so near to 

 each other as, to all appearance, to form but one tree, as in the Wych Elm (Fig. G) 

 and in another example of the Beech, in a future figure. 



No one can plant a group of trees of considerable size, even for immediate 

 effect, without, in the first place, having a variety of heights disposed somewhat 

 in an irregular way. Thick planting must be resorted to in many instances, or 

 how shall the pendulous inclination of stems or branches be produced that gives 

 a graceful outline to the scene ? The distance asunder must be carefully con- 

 sidered, or the unison in producing effect will be lost. The most pendulous or 

 inclining forms must be left for the exterior of the groups, and so forth. 



AVhile the painter was studying nature only, the gardener, in the infancy of 

 what is now called landscape-gardening, busied himself in cutting and slashing 

 vegetation into all the most whimsical regular figures his ingenuity could invent. 

 Geometry, with its lines and rules, was his text-book, while the artist seized upon 

 nature in all her varied forms, and habits, and hues, exhibiting her as she appeared 

 on the mountain steep, or in the secluded dell, l)y the reedy river-side, on the 

 margin of the placid lake, or on the umbrageous hill. 



Thus, at the same time, were painters and gardeners employed ; each occupied 

 by the same objects ; the one forming real, the other painted scenery, but with 



