PRUNING : ITS ORNAMENT AND UTILITY. 49 
V. Pruning: Its Ornament and Utility. By Aurx. T. 
GILLANDERS, Forester, Skibo Castle, Dornoch. 
Mankind have always been lovers of trees. Whether we read 
ancient or modern history, we find the same fondness of trees. 
Indeed, they have often been planted to perpetuate the memory 
of heroic actions. Poets, painters, and philosophers have all 
admired trees and drawn inspiration from them in their respective 
studies. A tree has always been considered a fit object to arouse 
the esthetic sentiments of a musing or thinking intellect. If 
trees, then, have such lofty ideas in connection with them, the 
wonder is that arboriculture has not yet found a place among the 
sciences, or that the forester has been hitherto looked upon as 
little better than a mere hewer of wood. 
Having said there is so much beauty in trees, the question 
arises, what does such beauty consist of? Various reasons have 
been adduced as to the metaphysical origin of beauty. According 
to some, beauty consists of order with design, unity with variety, 
or in their relations. The zsthetic sentiment is aroused when we 
see well-arranged forms and proportions; and likewise in the 
recurrence of rectilinear figures, such as the square or paral- 
lelogram. Beauty, too, is seen in the symmetry of likeness, side 
by side, and in the repetition of similar parts. In trees beauty 
may be seen by the most cursory observer in a series of regular lines, 
in the approximation of definite angles, and likewise in the union 
of the firm with the flexible. How beautiful to see the stem and 
branches gradually tapering into slender points, and to behold 
the slender parts yielding to the gentle breeze while the stout 
stem stands firm. 
But while we thus trace the geometrical forms which give rise 
to the sense of beauty, we must never forget that no feeling of 
beauty is aroused unless the regularity is seen to be something 
apart from mere mechanical arrangement—a regularity which is 
in accordance with nature. Hence, in giving a definition of 
pruning, both for the purposes of ornament and utility, we may 
say that it is the art of aiding, not of improving nature—the art 
of cutting off useless additions and imperfections—additions which 
are considered ugly and worse than useless, Therefore the pruner, 
instead of trying to show his art and handiwork to the eye of the 
passer-by, ought to try and make Nature hide Art. 
VOL. XI., PART I, D 
