PLANTING DESIGN 155 



Some conical trees are fastigiate, with vertical branches held close to 

 the trunk, forming almost a column or an exclamation point, like the 

 Lombardy poplar. A conical tree can be used as an individual speci- 

 men, or as one of several specimens formally disposed, but it is more 

 difficult to treat than almost any other tree as a component of a larger 

 planting in which the individual trees are intended to subordinate their 

 shape to that of the whole foliage mass. 



There is the tree of the shape of a vase or a fountain, the notable 

 example being the American elm, which attracts the attention less by 

 its mass than by the expression of its growth, and which casts consider- 

 able shade without occupying any great space of ground. Then there 

 are trees of a weeping or pendulous habit of branching which tends to 

 lead the eye downward, in direct contrast with the conical forms. Also 

 there are many irregular forms like that of an old pasture white pine, — 

 characteristic, but more a matter of character than of describable shape. 



Each species of tree, growing untrammeled, tends to assume its Form the 

 particular typical form, and each species of tree has one form in youth, ^^V^l'^^ ^^ 

 one at maturity, another in old age.* All trees, each after its kind. Growth 

 are influenced in their form by the amount of nourishment they find 

 in the soil where they grow, by the shade conditions caused by com- 

 petition with other trees and by the force of the wind. All forms of 

 trees are made by the forms and disposition of their subordinate parts, 

 of branches and sprays in relation to the trunk ; they are a manifesta- 

 tion of the method of growth of the tree, and a record of the circum- 



* " Of form it may, furthermore, be said that a tree is not well understood until it is 

 understood in all the stages of its growth. The typical shape of a young tree often 

 differs very greatly from the typical shape of the same tree at maturity, and this again 

 from its typical shape in old age ; and, in planting, regard must be paid to the ques- 

 tion whether an immediate eifect or a long-postponed effect ought to be most consid- 

 ered. For example, a tree set in isolation on a lawn in full view from the house ought 

 to be beautiful in youth and at the same time give promise of beauty (perhaps of a 

 different kind but still appropriate) in later years ; whereas in planting a belt or wood 

 in the distance, the principal trees should be so chosen that they will look better and 

 better the older they grow, while present effect may be chiefly considered in others 

 which are destined to be cut as development progresses." 



The Artistic Aspects of Trees ^ IV, in Garden and Forest^ vol. i, p. 373. (See Refer- 

 ences.) 



