OR IN MIXED PLANTATIONS. 27i) 



grounds, some of the taller growing conical-topped conifers, such as 

 the silver fir, are productive of simdar results ; but great care is 

 requisite not to introduce, either these or the Lombardy poplars over 

 abundantly. In pleasure-grounds, a lower class of fastigiate trees, 

 as well as of shrubs, may be introduced with equally effective results, 

 such as the different upright growing elms, fastigiate oaks, haw- 

 thorns, thorn acacia, elders, yews, junipers, cypress, &C.; but neither 

 should they be over abundantly planted. 



5. Grouping with respect to size, colour, and form of Leafage. — 

 In planting, as in painting, light and dark colours as well as sizes 

 impart apparent nearness or distance when the trees are equally 

 removed from the observer, and this is still more obvious when 

 the leafage is alike or nearly so in form. For example, if a Corstor- 

 phine, a common, and a Jersey plum or sycamore are thus equi- 

 distant, the light colour of the first will make it seem nearer than 

 the second, while the darker colour of the last will make it appear 

 as if still farther off. In like manner, with the common s3 r camore, 

 the sugar maple, and the English maple, the diminishing size of the 

 trees as well as of their foliage would seemingly place the first in 

 advance of the second, while the last, from its much smaller as well 

 as darker green foliage, would appear as if considerably beyond. 

 Again, with very dark colours, such as the purple beech, purple elm, 

 and the like, if these are planted equidistant with common beech 

 and elm, the purple foliaged trees would appear at further off 

 distances proportionate to the depth of their colouring; and these 

 effects are still more marked when such very dark foliaged plants 

 occupy situations that are shaded from the sun at the time of 

 observation, as on the north or east sides of plantations. Deciduous 

 trees retain the foresaid appearance of nearness and distance 

 according to the size of their foliage, even when it has fallen, from 

 its being a general ride that the strength or thickness, as well as the 

 number or quantity of the young shoots or branchlets, is propor- 

 tionate to the size of the leaves. This is exemplified in our largest 

 leaved trees, the horse chestnut and common plane, with their few 

 and thick shoots, contrasted with the birch, which is at once the 

 smallest leaved and most slenderly as well as closely twigged of 

 ordinary forest trees. One of the seemingly most difficult problems 

 that the landscape forester has to solve is that of making straight 

 lines appear crooked, and stiff ones easy. This, however, is often a 

 very necessary performance, as in the cases of hedge rows and other 

 lines of trees, as well as in straight or stiff outlined belts and planta- 



VOL. VII. PART III. U 



