PLANTING DESIGN 169 



islands, deeper in the view, which concentrate the attention on the 

 main object, while themselves forming a subordinate part of the same 

 view. 



It is, as we have seen, possible to secure strength of one part of an 

 enframing plantation by its size, density, and individuality of form. 

 Too great emphasis of these characteristics will, however, spoil the form 

 unity of the total enframing mass. Too close an intermingling of tall 

 plant forms with low ones, rounded shapes with pointed ones, evergreen 

 plants with deciduous, will produce an unpleasant restlessness. In a 

 general way it is true that the promontories in such plantations as we 

 are discussing should be high, abrupt at the end, perhaps accented 

 with a few aspiring or especially individual forms ; the plants forming 

 the bays should be lower, and should rise more gradually from the open 

 to the higher background behind them. It is almost never desirable to 

 have a low mass pocketed behind a higher one, but specimen trees, 

 individual masses, may of course rise to a greater height from the lawn 

 or from lower foliage. 



The long axis of the promontories may often with advantage be at 

 right angles to the principal views, and the promontories may be no 

 thicker than is necessary to make them satisfactory screens, and good 

 forms in the general design. Such an arrangement of foliage, in eifect 

 like the wings and scenery of a stage, will give the maximum open area 

 together with the maximum of interest of subordinate compositions. As 

 they are foreshortened, each on the one behind it, color and texture 

 differences of promontories will tend to accent the diversification of the 

 outline of the open space. As the separate bays tend to tell as separate 

 compositional units when looked into, for the sake of variety they may 

 be different and each may have a distinctive characteristic. These 

 characteristics may change with the seasonal variation of vegetation, 

 offering first flowering shrubs, then colored fruit, then autumn foliage, 

 and so on. It is much easier to have these different effects follow each 

 other in the same dominant location, thus getting a series of different 

 pictures in the same enframement. It is possible, however, to have, 

 for instance, first a promontory and then a bay assume dominance as 

 different plants come into flower or put on their autumn color. This is 

 more difficult because it requires that the designer shall arrange that 



