and the other including plants which are distinctive as individuals and perhaps 

 are decorative or showy. In short, the first class may be called plants of indefinite 

 form and habit, or plants for background purposes; and the second, plants of 

 definite form and habit, or plants for accent or focalization purposes. 



What is meant by plants of "indefinite form or habit"? As one walks through 

 a woodland or thicket, his impression is not that of walking between maple or 

 oak or hemlock trees and viburnum, witch hazel, or other bushes and other specif- 

 ic kinds of plants, but just that of woods or coppice. Whatever the particular 

 type of woodland, the impression is a general one; and individual plants composing 

 the woodland are either not noticed at all, or, at most, are not sufficiently promi- 

 nent to create more than a general, or collective, impression. Even a student of 

 natural science, who is acquainted with most of the plants, has a conception of 

 the plants collectively rather than individually. In most situations where the 

 vegetation is native and spontaneous, one's impression of it is apt to be that of 

 scenery of one kind or another where few if any plants are prominent to any 

 great degree. Where woods or thickets verge upon a clearing or a field, the foliage 

 becomes more dense, but the several kinds of trees or shrubs cannot be differen- 

 tiated except by close examination, and from a distance their collective effect 

 is merely that of woodland border. 



The greater part of our native vegetation is of this indefinite character, the 

 separate plants merging into those about them and displaying no sharp lines 

 nor conspicuous variety. In the spring there is more color, but all the color is 

 harmonious, and produces collective effects similar to those characteristic of the 

 summer. In the fall, likewise, although there may be brilliant color in spots, 

 all the color is brilliant and the greater contrasts are common. At all seasons 

 there is usually a predominance of the more sombre colors, and the occasional 

 brilliant color of flowers, or berries, or even of whole trees in autumnal red, is 

 thus furnished with an ample and a harmonious background. 



It is not alone some definite object of interest which makes most views attrac- 

 tive, but it is the setting afforded this object, the boundless tracts of woods, the 

 fields, and the mass effect of the infinite number of insignificant plants. Without 

 these insignificant plants we could not have our fine scenery. There is variety in 

 our scenery, but it is a subtle variety. It is this contrast with an infinitely greater 

 proportion of indefinite foliage that makes possible our enjoyment of the excep- 

 tion, the individually interesting or beautiful plants. 



What are the characteristics of the individual tree or shrub which, in the mass, 

 make for indefiniteness? When one enters a partial clearing in the woods, where 

 the few remaining trees stand like tall spectres, with few and scattered branches 

 and no regularity of growth, or at least of insufficient density to give the appearance 

 of regularity, he may see good examples of woodland trees. The branches have 

 had to reach for light, and the trees have become irregular in habit, even if of 

 species which, in the open field, would normally tend to develop into symmetrical 

 trees. In the woods the branches interlace, and from a distance, at least, the 

 green of their leaves being similar, there appear no hard and fast lines of foliage 

 demarkation. Some trees, whether in the thicket or in the open, persist in very 

 irregular habits and assume no general symmetry or form. Instead, they spread 

 loosely, seemingly with but one determination, that of becoming angular and 

 irregular. Many other trees that, from necessity and crowding grow irregularly 



