94 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



for the poverty of its outline, while the 

 beauty of the clump depends almost entirely 

 upon its form. 



It is difficult to conceive how any person, 

 conversant with the varieties and combina- 

 tions of nature (which every improver should 

 be), could ever stumble upon so monotonous 

 a form as an oval or a circular group of trees. 

 If variety and intricacy are essential to pic- 

 turesque effect, what of either is to be found 

 in these figures, whether in their youth, or 

 when released from their enclosure? Let 

 any one, conversant with the subject, ex- 

 amine an oval or circular plantation of any 

 age, and try how many trees he can preserve 

 in the endeavour to give it any resemblance 

 to a natural group : nearly all within are 

 poles ; and so many must be removed from 

 the circular line, ere that line can be at all 

 obliterated, as will leave at last a very small 

 proportion of the number originally planted. 

 I speak, I may say, from painful experience ; 

 having frequently been under the necessity 

 of inverting the principle of decimation by 

 the removal of nine out of ten, to obtain 

 even a tolerable combination. 



On the other hand, the irregular form 



