196 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING. 



and there, will produce a better effect than to make 

 formal lines with the trees at uniform distances apart. 

 There is a striking illustration of this in the strong con- 

 trast afforded between the irregularly w^ooded north 

 drives in Hyde Park, Loudon, where along the sides 

 for miles the trees are arranged in scattered groups, and 

 similar avenues in other parks with formal lines of 

 trees at their sides. The same idea is true generally of 

 trees to be planted along the boundaries of large grounds. 

 They will create a much better effect if grouped openly, 

 as in figure 36, than if set, as is often done, in a straight 



Fig. 36. — PLANTING ON BOUNDAEIES. 



line. It is seldom indeed the case, anywhere outside 

 of narrow stieets, that formal lines might not well give 

 way to informal scattering clusters. 



Throughout the grounds, open groups of large trees 

 may jut out from heavy marginal plantations, or occupy 

 places by themselves surrounded by the open lawn, or 

 they may be in some parts brought in to form groves. 

 Near the junctions of walks and drives, or in bends of 

 these, are also suitable places for trees thus disposed. 

 But the open grouping system of planting should never 

 be confounded with the faulty '^ dot-a-tree-every where" 

 system sometimes met with, and in which such essential 

 garden features as open areas and vistas seem to never 

 have been even thought of by the planters. 



The planting of trees, shrubs, etc., as isolated speci- 

 mens, either singly or two or three near each other, is often 

 desirable. It may be observed that in nature isolated 

 specimens generally are, in effect, subordinate to masses 



