60 LANDSCAPE-GARDENING 



nation. This is the fact that no three or more plants 

 are in line. Each individual tree or shrub seems 

 to have selected its neighbors. Two may apparently 

 be talking together or enjoying each other's com- 

 panionship in one place, three in another, and then 

 there may be a whole town meeting of trees or bushes. 

 Perhaps a thousand pawpaws may be gathered to- 

 gether in one locality, a group of elderberries in an- 

 other, a grove of beeches in another, and choke- 

 cherries and sheep-berries in still another. One 

 old patriarch of a tree appears to have gathered his 

 children about him. This lack of regularity pro- 

 duces an air of freedom that is delightful. The truth 

 of the above statement may be shown by an example. 

 Some Americans were approaching a forest on one 

 of the great estates of England. They remarked 

 with enthusiasm before reaching it, "That looks 

 like real American woods." On passing through 

 the outer fringe of foliage, however, and finding that 

 the forest trees stood in rows like an apple orchard, 

 they were disappointed. To be sure, the fact that 

 forest trees, mostly beeches, had been planted and 

 had grown to be three or four feet in diameter was 

 very interesting, but the anticipated charm of the 

 woods as such was gone. It is certainly legitimate 



