172 ANNUAL REPORT 



is almost wholly of this description, and no portion of the park has 

 been more admired for its picturesque natural effect than this. 



The use of shrubbery for ornamental effect, it appears to me, is not 

 appreciated as it deserves to be, largely owing no doubt to general ig- 

 norance of how to make judicious use of it, which cannot be taught 

 in books, and which few of our people will take the trouble to learn 

 by practice. 



EMBELLISH THE LANDSCAPE. 



One of the most important and desirable objects in the arrange- 

 ment of grounds, whether public or private, is to secure variety. If 

 on entering a park, or a private estate, you find that you can take in the 

 whole area at a glance — or see all the arrangements from any one spot, 

 you cannot profitably derive the pleasure and interest from their in- 

 spection that you would have if they were revealed to you in succes- 

 sion so that each would be a new surprise. 



Suppose for instance on entering the grounds of a villa residence of a 

 few acres you find a level area of perhaps an acre between the house and 

 the highway, and the rest of the ground sloping down to the bank of 

 a stream, — beyond which you have a distant view of the city, or of a 

 wide expanse of beautiful country. The whole area, if left open, cau 

 be seen at once on entering the place from the highway, and most 

 proprietors would have the feeling that it was on all accounts desir- 

 able to impress every visitor with a just conception of the attractions 

 he had secured from the outset, and would perhaps arrange the drive- 

 way to the house so as to afford the best possible view of the distant 

 prospect, which would absorb his attention at once. 



But now suppose, instead of this, that the entrance drive is so ar- 

 ranged, and groups of trees and shrubbery so planted, that until the 

 visitor reaches the house he would see only the area in front of it, 

 which might be so arranged with lawn and flowers and trees as to 

 have a pleasant, homelike aspect. 



He enters the house, and passing into the parlor the whole of the 

 distant view bursts upon him as a surprise as he looks from the win- 

 dows. The same thing can be repeated in detail in the various sub- 

 divisions of the grounds, so that a walk through them will afford a 

 series of surprises, and convey the idea of a much more extensive tract 

 than they really comprise. Now, a chief object in the planting of 

 shrubbery is to aid in securing this effect of subdivision, and if prop- 

 erly done it serves the purpose so completely that paths or other objects 

 may be effectually screened though only a few feet distant. 



