LANDSCAPE FORESTRY 223 



not only contain a great deal of ripe and possibly decaying 

 timber, but the manner in which the trees are arranged 

 and grown does not always tend to produce timber of high 

 technical value, nor such as the timber buyer has any great 

 liking for. With large woods, of course, it is unnecessary 

 to treat the whole of the ground from the ornamental 

 standpoint, and a greater or smaller extent of the ground 

 may be used for timber-growing pure and simple. But 

 this does not affect the margins of the more important rides, 

 nor those points which have anything of a landscape value, 

 such as the summits of hills or the crests or slopes of 

 ridges. But such matters as these must be left to the 

 taste or discretion of the owner, and individual cases must 

 be treated according to the local surroundings and the main 

 purpose for which the wood is maintained. 



An attempt will now be made to supplement the 

 principles already laid down on the subject of landscape 

 effect, by enumerating the various trees and shrubs which may 

 appropriately be used in planting such woods, the position 

 they ought to occupy, and the treatment they ought to 

 receive. 



In the first place, it is necessary to divide all trees and 

 shrubs into two classes one of which is represented by those 

 trees which owe their beauty to their symmetrical outline 

 and formal habit of growth, such as the majority of conifers, 

 and those which are of a more or less irregular habit 

 of growth, unless moulded and influenced by surrounding 

 conditions, such as practically all indigenous trees and the 

 majority of deciduous ones. It may be laid down as a 

 general principle that these two classes rarely harmonise 

 with one another. Take two such extreme types as a birch 

 and an araucaria. The former owes its beauty to its loose 

 and pendulous habit and the entire absence of stiffness and 

 formality, while the latter is nothing if not absolutely 

 regular in outline and symmetrical from base to apex. 

 These two species, planted side by side, therefore, are rarely 

 attractive, the contrast being too great. But, although the 

 araucaria may be too stiff and formal to suit every taste, 

 it can at least be tolerated in a pinetum, where trees more 

 or less of a similar character prevail, and where species of 



