70 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. 



of exuberant- health, it is always a beautiful object and 

 never fails to excite an emotion of pleasure. A street 

 lined on each side with such trees of a corresponding size, 

 would possess an intrinsic beauty, which would add incal- 

 culably to whatever architectural elegance it might pos- 

 sess, and would go far to make up for any deficiencies in 

 that respect. Variety might be secured by changing the 

 character of the mass, but not by an indiscriminate mixture 

 of different kinds of trees, which destroys all symmetrical 

 effect, and in fact fritters away the sense of variety. 



Let any one observe the character of individual trees 

 such as are generally planted in our city streets, and mark 

 also the general effect and try to contrast it in his mind 

 with the possibility above suggested. He will very rarely 

 find a tree possessing any real beauty of its own, and very 

 many, and especially of those of large size which fiave 

 been removed at great cost, are not only utterly deficient 

 in grace and symmetry of form, but present such a meagre 

 and sickly display of foliage as can excite no feeling of 

 pleasure in the mind. With such deficiency of attractive 

 interest in the individual specimens, and with an utter lack 

 of system in planting, it is by no means surprising that no 

 effect is produced which is worthy of attention as confer- 

 ring any distinct expression. 



The large sums which are annually expended in all our 

 cities in tree-planting, are in fact wasted so far as the 

 results attained will compare with what might be secured 

 by a more judicious system, and it is one of the incon- 

 sistencies resulting from general ignorance of the subject, 

 that a matter of such vital importance to the beauty and 



