TREES AND THEIR PURPOSE 147 



den, cannot in close quarters take the place in 

 perspective which should be theirs. They will 

 always overshadow on a small place — literally 

 as well as figuratively — the entire conception, 

 if an attempt is made to introduce them in num- 

 bers and in a natural arrangement. 



It is not trees in the aggregate and in their 

 sublime forest aspect, therefore, that we may 

 consider here; but trees as individuals and in 

 the closest domestic relation. So the first ques- 

 tion, naturally, will have to do with that rela- 

 tion. What is it to be — the purely polite and 

 aesthetic, or the practical and utilitarian .^^ In 

 other words, shall the selection be for shade 

 and ornament, or for fruit? 



This is another of those questions which per- 

 sonal preference must decide. Almost any fruit 

 tree, excepting the apple, may be used with 

 quite as good effect pictorially anywhere as an 

 ornamental tree. The apple alone, as usually 

 grown, is too irregular in its form to be ad- 

 mitted to the formal environment of a small 

 garden. It is something of an effort to wrench 

 the mind free from traditional shade trees, how- 

 ever, and as yet there are not many small gar- 

 den examples to show the possibilities of such 

 emancipation, or to furnish encouragement to 

 the uncertain. 



