LANDSCAPE FORESTRY 211 



such results are produced until the clumps have had full 

 time to develop. Neither the oak nor the Scots fir can be 

 called picturesque in youth, and they must, therefore, be kept 

 as much as possible in the back-ground at the time of plant- 

 ing. Beauty, on the other hand, may be said to be repre- 

 sented in a graceful clump of ash or birch trees, for both 

 trees exhibit that lightness and elegance upon which beauty 

 depends. The branches of an ash which have not been 

 confined by other trees often exhibit curves and lines of the 

 most beautiful nature, which completely relieves that tendency 

 to stiffness on the part of the spray which is objectionable 

 in young trees. A weeping birch, again, is one of the most 

 charming objects in nature, not only as regards the habit of 

 the tree, but also in respect to its silvery, variegated, and 

 rugged bark. 



In fact, while beauty and picturesqueness may be detected 

 in all trees to a greater or less extent, it may be stated as 

 a general fact that the former depends upon the individual, 

 and the latter more upon its age and relation to its surround- 

 ings. We can often find beauty at a very early age in such 

 trees as silver firs, spruces, cedars, etc., in which it is repre- 

 sented by their symmetry, habit, or foliage. But it requires 

 a great stretch of the imagination to see beauty in a twenty- 

 year-old ash or Scots fir. With age, on the other hand, the 

 latter may often be as beautiful, and are usually more 

 picturesque, than those trees mentioned above, in which 

 outline, habit, or foliage never alters, or, if so, only for the 

 worse. 



These differences in the habits and characteristics of 

 trees illustrate the different points of view from which they 

 may be regarded by the layer out of the place, and those 

 who follow and watch its ultimate development. Trees which 

 are appropriate and ornamental in the fore-ground of a view 

 during the first fifty years after planting, may be out of 

 place and disagreeable later on ; and it is therefore as 

 necessary to revise and modify the work of the original 

 designer from time to time, as it was necessary for the 

 latter to study immediate and early effect at the outset. 



