302 LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



another. They are also often planted as a protection on steeply slop- 

 ing ground which would be denuded by traffic if left open, or in any 

 other areas from which traffic should be kept away. The shrub areas, 

 and often some of the tree plantings as well, must themselves be pro- 

 tected from destruction by foot traffic, if they lie so that there is a 

 temptation for people to force a passage through them, and particularly 

 when, under these circumstances, they stand upon sloping ground 

 where the soil will be worn and carried away by water if people walk 

 upon it to any extent. Dense prickly shrubs like barberry and haw- 

 thorn will often defend themselves, the ground surface, and perhaps 

 the trees among them, if once they are established. In good design, 

 however, it is often possible to arrange the lines of travel so that people 

 are attracted from one opening to another, and there is no considerable 

 temptation to the public to make short-cuts through the plantations. 



This pastoral park design in open meadow, undulation of ground 

 surface, and groups and masses of open trees, though it may be thor- 

 oughly satisfactory as the character of one unit, even of the largest 

 unit of the park, becomes monotonous when too much repeated,* and 

 in many instances it has been unintelligently imposed upon park areas 

 in which some existing local character might have been seized upon to 

 produce a different effect well worth such extra cost of maintenance as 

 it might entail. 

 Wooded Land- Within the wooded areas, different characters may be brought about 



^^^^' by developing different kinds of trees. Even when a park is made from 



an area already wooded with a mixed stand of timber, it is possible by 

 judicious cutting and planting to produce, for instance, a pine grove in 

 one place, a beech grove in another, an aspen grove in a third, and 

 their different effects will make new appeals to the observer without 

 necessarily destroying the broad effect of the forest mass. The destruc- 

 tive results of traffic upon the roots of some trees tend to limit the 

 choice of the designer In the characters of woodland which he may use. 

 Hemlocks, for instance, are likely to be destroyed by too great trampling 

 of the ground. The relation of topography, traffic, and choice of trees 

 should be considered from the first. Areas which must be frequently 

 traversed or used for picnic or music groves must be planned eventually 



* Cf. footnote on p. 82. 



