OF ORNAMENTAL TREES. 47 



42. For these reasons evergreens should 

 never preponderate around places, or in 

 situations devoted to amusement or recrea- 

 tion. By schools, or places devoted to the 

 young, they are objectionable in great num- 

 bers. Unsuggestive of lightness and gayety, 

 they are opposed to the thoughtless, yet 

 happy innocence of childhood. Wherever 

 the aged love to resort, whatever is to have 

 an air of solitude or peace, there is the spot 

 which evergreens will adorn; here is the 

 point from which they will really seem beau- 

 tiful. 



.43. The selection of trees for effect can 

 then depend upon no particular rule, fitness 

 or appropriateness depending upon each cir- 

 cumstance; but unity and harmony are more 

 general in their application. 



44. Unity of design must not degenerate 

 into formality; nor harmony into monotony. 

 It is the frequency of this degeneracy that 

 produces the opposite errors of irregularity 

 and discord. One, in a mistaken view of 

 unity, will divide his grounds into two equal 

 parts, and an oak or an elm on one side 

 must have precisely the same on the other, 



