1 62 National and public parks and tree planting 



alone ! What do we see of the beauty and character of 

 any one large family of trees by planting them all at 

 regular intervals over a plot, or in the various ways we 

 see them arranged in botanic gardens? If our aim be 

 to show the beauty and dignity of the vegetable kingdom, 

 we must set ourselves free from such small notions, and 

 clearly the way to do this is to treat our vast series of 

 gardens as a whole, and stamp on each some marked 

 feature — from the smallest square with Hawthorns, to 

 the great park adorned with the trees of a hundred 

 hills. 



In every direction distinct types of vegetation might 

 be met with, instead of the 'universal mixture' now 

 everywhere seen, which so soon trains the eye to take 

 no more notice of trees or plants than of the railings 

 around the squares. It is not, like many of the changes 

 we long for in towns, impossible to carry out from want 

 of means. The adoption of it would tend to make the 

 money freely spent on our public gardens go toward 

 valuable results, and might easily free us from the 

 present way of devoting vast sums to the growth of 

 tender plants. 



