Trees and Shrubs 67 



tion of the different kinds of trees is the most 

 unnatural arrangement imaginable. 



There is nothing more beautiful and more in 

 accordance with untrammeled Nature than a 

 luxurious mixed forest where the sun dances 

 among the many hues of green, and nothing 

 more monotonous and dismal than a district 

 where one passes now a clump of firs, then a 

 long stretch of larches, here a patch of birches, 

 and in another place a collection of poplars or 

 oaks, and a thousand paces on the same tedious 

 rows beginning again. It is entirely different in 

 the case of large forests of aged trees, where, in 

 the end, as in the world of men, the dominating 

 species oppress the weaker, and yet one may see 

 in a fruitful soil, even in a wild state, the fir 

 pairing with the oak, the birch with the alder, 

 the beech with the lime, and the thornbushes 

 with all kinds of deciduous trees. 



As regards the latter, I have always kept in 

 mind the advice of Mr. Repton, the eminent 

 garden expert, seldom to plant a tree without 

 giving it a brier as a protector. Although this 

 rule must not be taken literally, yet it is a most 

 useful one both for protecting and for giving 

 variety to the plantation. 



I need hardly recommend that all blossoming 

 and berry-bearing plants, such as wild fruit trees, 

 thorns, hips, peonies, mountain ash, barberries, 

 alders, etc., must be brought forward to the bor- 

 ders and made conspicuous, but one must be 

 careful not to make the intention too obvious 



