INTRODUCTION. 85 



the laying out or improvement of park and garden 

 scenery. 



The comparative value of trees as means of ornament 

 is a subject which has been little studied_, or, at least, it 

 has been imperfectly expounded in books, and yet it is 

 one of very great importance. The expression of the 

 ground outline of a wood or clump, for example, may be 

 perfect in itself, but it may be modified into very different 

 degrees of excellence by the character of the trees of 

 which it is composed. We can conceive two parks as 

 nearly as possible the same in other respects, still if each 

 is planted with trees of a distinct and peculiar kind, the 

 difference of effects resulting ^ill be so great as very much 

 to diminish any original resemblance between them. Firs, 

 when planted by themselves, or where they prevail to the 

 general exclusion of deciduous trees, give a permanent 

 evergTeen character to the park. T^Tien the plantations 

 are occupied by the common run of trees that shed their 

 leaves, without a due admixture of the fir tribe, the 

 results will be masses of foliage during the summer and 

 autumn months, and an obvious bareness and meagre- 

 ness in winter and spring, particularly where the bodies 

 of wood are small, or are deficient in breadth. It is 

 evident that much must be gained by a skilful distribu- 

 tion and mixture of both classes. The same remarks 

 apply, and perhaps with increased force, to groups of 

 single trees and to detached trees : these are very much 

 dependent for their beauty and general effect on the 

 kind of the trees employed. 



Our present object is rather to bring the ornamental 

 character of trees before the notice of our readers, than to 

 attempt a full exposition of a subject which, in a general 

 point of view, is somewhat indefinite, and which, in its 



