f an^snip in (ir0nnctti,ou toiti] ®ru planting, gfo. 4, 



(CONCLUSIOX.) 



F we have succeeded in getting the ear of the landscape 

 improver, by illustrating to the eye the effects of grouping, 

 we have only now to add, that the study of the subject, 

 to be effective, must be combined with a certain amount 

 of arboricultural knowledge before the work is com- 

 I menced. If we do not know the natural heights which 

 I each species attains, the first principle is wanting. Merely 

 to group for the effect of the present year, by planting 

 trees according to their respective heights in the nursery 

 I rows, would be attended with certain disappointment as 

 the plants made progress ; while the centre tree would 

 scarcely grow in height, the outside ones might in two 

 or three years overtop them, and throw them entirely out 

 of sight. Hence it is that the services of a landscape-gardener with this know- 

 ledge, is necessary to success, and hence it also is, that persons without this pre- 

 vious knowledge are always pretenders. 



While groups may be made so very effective, even in small pla'ces, the greatest 

 care, in a large scene, must be taken that irregularity of breadth be preserved in 

 the glades or pastures, and that the dotting system be strictly avoided ; by spot- 

 ting groups equally all over a surface, repose is frittered away, and no breadth or 

 varied expanses of lawn, which are so much to be desired, are shown. 



The rarest and most interesting kinds of trees and shrubs ought to appear near- 

 est to the road, walk, or mansion, or they might be otherwise overlooked. In a 

 dressed border, efforts should be strenuously made to have shrubs and plants some 

 of which will bloom at all seasons, and such should be selected that do not require 

 much water, where the means of irrigation are not at hand. 



As regards our final illustratfons of grouping. Fig. 19 is far more in unison 

 with two Spruce Firs, as they there appear, than if they were planted on the out- 

 side of the whole of the Poplars, on account of their deeper tone ; or a group of 

 Spruce Firs or Larch (Fig. 20) with a Silver Fir or Cedar of Lebanon, is more 

 in character than if cither of the latter were placed on one side. 



A large or massive group, composed of various trees, and of various heights 

 and distances, with the most striking character blended inside, would produce an 

 assemblage of varied outline and of natural loveliness (Fig. 21) ; but if a single 

 tree only, of striking character, were placed on one side of such a group — as, for 

 instance, a Cedar of Lebanon, Scotch Fir, Austrian Pine, Spruce Fir, Larch, or 

 Purple Beech — the balance of beauty would be instantly destroyed. 



This little essay on grouping and massing may perhaps convey some ideas to 

 improvers, and give to those in possession of country places an impetus to a more 

 extended study of the charming topic ; possibly, too, it may induce others in pos- 

 session of trees to give them artistic changes, affecting and beautifying their whole 

 character for present and after time. The subject admits of much extension, but 

 as brevity has to be studied in these pages, we give place at present to other 

 topics. 



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Vol. VII.— May, 1857. 



U 



