THE MASS VS. THE SPECIMEN 127 



Reduced to a single expression, all this means 

 that the greatest artistic value in planting lies in 

 the e%ctjijLJiha-Jiiass, and not in the individual 

 plant. A mass has the greater value because it 

 presents a much greater range and variety of 

 forms, colors, shades and textures, because it has 

 sufficient extent or dimensions to add structural 

 character to a place, and because its features are 

 so continuous and so well blended that the mind 

 is not distracted bv incidental and irrelevant 



122. A nature-planted tangle. 



ideas. A couple of pictures will admirably illus- 

 trate all this. Figs. 121, 122 are pictures of nat- 

 ural copses. The former stretches across a vale, 

 and makes a lawn of the bit of meadow which 

 lies in front of it. The landscape has become 

 so small and so well denned by this bank of 

 verdure that it has a familiar and personal feel- 

 ing. The great, bare, open meadows are too ill- 



