CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES. 



293 



Fig. 89. 



softness of outline, becomes majestic and noble by the massive 

 irregularity of its shadows ; while the Lombardy poplars, Fig. 

 89, stratified vertically by shadows as of long bundles 

 of foliaged faggots, convey an impression of having all 

 been cast in a common mould. The same effect is 

 produced by the upright junipers, the arbor-vitaes, and 

 other trees of conical outlines and fastigiate shadow 

 lines. Such repetitions of the same formal outlines, how- 

 ever, tend to make them appropriate connecting links 

 between the regularity and symmetry of street improve- 

 ments, of which they form a part, and the wild graces of 

 nature which are in contrast with the repetitions and 

 parallelisms of architectural art. Such trees are, there- 

 fore, used with happy effect in connection with garden 

 walks and terraces, and near buildings. But they must 

 never be seen in numbers together, or they produce the 

 effect of a superfluity of exclamation points in composition. Trees 

 like the Norway spruce, though less formal in outline and shadows 

 than those just named, have still so much of this same uniformity 

 and even rigidity of expression, that they need to be introduced 

 much more sparmgly among other trees, near to architecture of any 

 kind, than those of more diversified forms and shadows. One 

 spiry-top tree will serve to give spirit to a whole group of round- 

 headed trees or shrubs, while a group of spiry-top trees with one 

 round-headed tree in it, at once conveys the impression of incon- 

 gruity. Spiry-top trees should be considered as condiments in the 

 landscape — never as main features. Trees and shrubs of formal 

 outlines are the nat'.fal adjuncts of grounds arranged on a geometric 

 plan, while those of freer growth are most becoming where geo- 

 metric lines are avoided. In speaking of the "wild graces of nature " 

 as in contrast with architectural art, we do not mean to convey the 

 impression that such a contrast is undesirable. On the contrary, the 

 most perfect works of art in landscape gardening are those in which 

 the free graces of nature are so arranged, that the architectural 

 features of the place will look as if they had been 7nade for just such 

 a setting. Contrast does not imply want of harmony ; it is a part of 

 harmony ; it is rest from monotony ; it is as light to shadow. 



