Trees, Shrubs and Vines 



scheme of ideal precision, and eventuate in simply a 

 miscellaneous output of small leaves, neither so profuse 

 nor so beautifully symmetrical as is invariably attained 

 from year to year by the scheme of compound leaves, 

 which can never degenerate into a medley of growth. 

 Let anyone study the doubly compound leaf of the 

 honey-locust and Kentucky coffee-tree, or the com- 

 pound leaf of the ailanthus and walnut, as compared 

 with the leaf-system in the elm and white birch, and 

 it will convince him that under present conditions of 

 growth, and with constant liability of derangement, 

 that singularly beautiful leaf-pattern and the profusion 

 and symmetrical effect of the foliage-mass could never 

 have been secured, without resorting to the compound- 

 leaf system. Horse-chestnut, hickory, sumach, butter- 

 nut, ash, locust, and many others, are thus widely dif- 

 ferentiated from oak, maple, hornbeam, beech, etc., 

 producing a most, pleasing variety. 



Large, roundish leaves are comparatively ungraceful, 

 and such trees as the catalpa, basswood, and button- 

 wood must have corresponding perspective, or be 

 planted where the surroundings will properly offset the 

 heavy, clumsy effect of such foliage. This is still more 

 true of such magnolias as the cucumber-tree, umbrella- 

 tree, and especially the large-leaved magnolia {niacro- 

 philla), whose heavy tropical appearance, strongly 

 punctuating a broad vista, is a monstrosity in a small 

 grass-plot, where only the graceful figure and delicate 

 leaf-tracery of such trees as the cut-leaved or Japanese 

 maple, the white birch, the Koelreuteria, the mountain- 

 ash or cut-leaved alder, are appropriate. For a dense 



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