DECIDUOUS SHRUBS. 457 



finite pleasure all the little variations of form and shade that can 

 be discovered in them, and appear to place a higher value on a 

 single quality which distinguishes a new plant from all others, than 

 on any combination of merits in the old. We say appear to do so ; 

 but, in fact, the eyes of such lovers of trees and shrubs are like the 

 ears of highly cultivated musicians, who do not love pure and 

 simple sounds the less because they listen with more rapt and de- 

 lighted attention to the intricate play of new chords and harmonies 

 that may be interwoven with the simple body of the music. The 

 beauty with which we have become quite familiar, like the warmth 

 of sunlight, is felt without being observed ; but what is uncommon 

 in nature or art creates a sensation of excitement, and if it is a 

 thing of beauty, becomes an aesthetic stimulus. But the love of 

 intricate melodies, peculiar to highly cultivated musicians, cannot; 

 be ingrafted suddenly upon the greater number who love simple 

 music; nor can the taste of the cultured amateur in trees and 

 shrubs be shared by the great mass of persons who admire sylvan 

 nature only in a rudimentary way. 



It will be seen, therefore, that several classes of persons and 

 tastes must be provided for. First, those who appreciate only 

 the most prominent and simple forms of vegetable beauty ; second, 

 those (a much smaller number) who have passed the first stage of 

 observation, and whose eyes have become educated to take in and 

 appreciate a greater number of features or peculiarities at once 

 who have become connoisseurs or dilettanti in natural objects; 

 third, those who may be named the artist-eyed class, who value 

 sylvan features not so much for any of their beauties in detail, as 

 for those relations of forms and play of lights and shades and colors 

 which group into what we call pictures. The last class is the one 

 which soonest learns to handle trees and shrubs, so as to make 

 homes beautiful. For the first class it would be absurd to describe 

 numerous varieties of each species of tree or shrub when one or 

 two would answer perfectly their wants ; but to satisfy the second 

 class, respectful mention must be made of much that is new and 

 rare. It is by the enthusiasm of just such persons as compose the 

 second class that most of the beautiful trees and shrubs, now com- 

 mon, but once rare or unknown, have been introduced ; some from. 



