PLANTING DESIGN 



^57 



growing plants on the one hand and such things as statues and steps 

 on the other. (See Drawing VI, opp. p. 48, and Drawing XX, opp. 

 p. 158.) 



The texture of a plant is the result of the shape, size, and surface Plant 

 of the leaves, their attitude and grouping on the twigs and smaller ^^■^'"'■' 

 boughs, and their arrangement to make up the whole foliage mass of 

 the plant. Large leaves, particularly such as are heavy and set stiffly 

 upon the twigs, tend to give a plant a coarse texture and a certain 

 strength and robustness of appearance. Small leaves, and those which 

 are so set that they tremble upon their stalks, tend to give a plant a 

 certain haziness of outline and an eifect of softness and delicacy. Leaves 

 numerous and close-set, like those of many evergreens, will give the 

 foliage masses of the separate boughs, and usuallj' indeed a whole tree, 

 an appearance of solidity and heaviness, which even apart from its 

 color will distinguish it from deciduous trees. Glossy leaves, or leaves 

 which are lighter on one side, will bring to the texture of the foliage of 

 a tree a certain gayety and sparkle, and will at times cause the tree 

 apparently quite to change its texture at the will of the wind. The 

 grouping of the leaves upon the twigs and the grouping of the twigs in 

 turn upon the boughs give a different pattern in the texture of trees 

 according to their kind. (For examples of various textures of foliage, 

 see Plates 4, 9, 21, 25, 26, and 27.) 



Texture is the form of small parts : there must exist a scale relation 

 between any texture and the form which it clothes. The leaves of the 

 hyacinths in the field of a Dutch grower make a textured carpet of the 

 ground, the leaves of one hyacinth in a pot can onh'' be considered as 

 related forms. A forest seen from a distant mountain has a furry soft 

 texture (see Frontispiece) ; nearer at hand this texture is seen to be 

 made up of separate trees. This scale relation of texture is a very im- 

 portant consideration in planting design. The landscape architect 

 might plant a mile-long straight avenue of hemlocks and the effect 

 of the row of trees might be a straight line, although the individual 

 trees making up this line might be twenty feet in diameter and thirty 

 feet apart. If, however, the designer wished to plant an edging in a 

 straight line bounding a flower bed five feet long, he would be compelled 

 to use such things as box bushes, not more than six inches in diameter 



