PLANTI NG DE SIGN 159 



The color of the foliage of plants as it appears in the landscape is Plant Color 

 only in part dependent on the color of the individual leaves as seen near 

 at hand. A plant which carries many leaves close together, forming Effect of 

 an almost unbroken surface, will appear to be almost of one uniform Character of 

 color. A plant with a more open foliage will have the general color of foHage Color 

 its leaves stippled with dark points of shadow or perhaps scattered with 

 brilliant flecks of light where the background of the shadowy interior 

 of the foliage mass or the sunlit space beyond shows through the screen 

 of leaves. In a tree with thick and heavy leaves, this interior shadow 

 will be dark ; in a tree with thin and translucent leaves, the inner part 

 of the foliage mass may be full of green light. If the leaves of the tree 

 be of different colors on the two sides, the color of the whole tree at a 

 distance will be to some extent a combination of these two colors, 

 shifting in amount according to the point of view and the play of the 

 wind. If a tree has glossy leaves, the side of its foliage mass towards the 

 sun will be sprinkled with brilliant points of yellowish white light, and 

 even in the shade its leaves will reflect the light of the sky and give 

 airiness and brilliance to a color that might otherwise be hea\-y. It 

 might be regarded as a fortunate fact from the point of view of the 

 designer that in so many cases heavy and dark-green leaves have this 

 glossiness of surface. 



Within the range of green color of foliage, from the white green of Range of 

 silver thorn and the yellow green of golden elder to the deep blue green ^°|^^^' 

 of white pine or the red green of red cedar, there is as great a variety 

 as an artist could obtain on his palette within the bounds of one color. 

 In addition to this we have the trees and shrubs with foliage which is, 

 in effect, of another color than green, like the purple beech, the red 

 Japanese maple, the gray variegated euonymus, and the still more 

 striking appearance of the plants with particolored foliage like coleus. 

 Besides all this we have the delicate and misty shades of silver and 

 rose and gold which clothe our deciduous trees in early spring, and the 

 fiery red and orange and yellow and the more sober dun and buff and 

 bronze and brown of our autumnal foliage. 



In his larger compositions in color of foliage mass, the designer is Restricted 

 usually endeavoring to make his work harmonious with the surrounding (-gj^°^^ ,^^^' 

 landscape. He is most often trying to make a composition which Green 



