LANDSCAPE FORESTRY 207 



to the eye. In neither case can the scenery be called grand, 

 and possibly it may not even deserve the name of 

 " picturesque " ; but the one is as superior to the other, from 

 a scenic point of view, as is a broken mass of towering rock 

 to a flat sandbank. 



In a hill country the precise effect of trees depends upon 

 the height and nature of the hills and the slopes of their 

 sides. With low flat-topped hills with gently sloping sides 

 and wide shallow valleys, forming what is usually known 

 as an undulating country, their presence is as great an 

 acquisition to the landscape as in a flat country, provided 

 they are properly placed. In an undulating but treeless 

 country the surface is more broken, and alternate hill and 

 vale relieve the monotony of a flat plain, it is true, but the 

 variations are, as a rule, too slight to give the landscape that 

 boldness and character which prevail in mountainous districts. 

 The hills and vales resemble each other so closely in form 

 and outline that one square mile of the district usually 

 contains all the features that may be found throughout the 

 whole, and the scenery becomes tame and insipid, and almost 

 as monotonous in its way as a dead level. But with the 

 presence of trees it is possible to change all this. By the 

 existence of clumps and groups of trees on the summits and 

 upper slopes of the hills, their height and the depth of the 

 intervening valleys are apparently increased, while their 

 rounded outlines are broken and varied. The valleys and 

 hollows, when left fairly open, and simply dotted over with 

 single trees or hedgerow timber, lead the eye from hill to 

 hill without any disagreeable break or abrupt boundary line 

 between the wood and open ground. The effect of a wooded 

 undulating country is heightened or decreased in proportion 

 to the judicious or fortuitous distribution of the trees, and 

 the broken character of the heavier masses, while the dis- 

 tribution, proportion, and arrangement of the different species 

 is also of importance. 



When a hilly district possesses a more mountainous 

 character, the effect of tree-growth is chiefly in the direc- 

 tion of detail and ground colouring. In such districts the 

 observer looks on rather than over the hills, and the slopes 

 of the latter are usually sufficiently steep and irregular, and 



