LANDSCAPE FORESTRY 241 



many of these in such a way that they only become eyesores 

 in themselves, and destroy the character of other trees 

 around them. This practice is probably more prevalent at 

 the present day than it has ever been, and is due to several 

 causes. 



In the first place, the number of species which are at 

 the disposal of the ornamental planter to-day are innumer- 

 able, and as their propagation increased, the cost of producing 

 them has gradually decreased. This has led to their being 

 much more freely used in all planting operations than when 

 the cost was more or less prohibitive, and when custom and 

 necessity compelled the planter to depend more upon in- 

 digenous species. 



Another cause is the entire lack of taste exhibited in a 

 great deal of modern planting-work. The forester or his 

 substitute, who happens to have a large number of such 

 plants to get rid of, is naturally less particular where he 

 places them than when they were scarce ; and as the principle 

 observed, in ninety-nine cases of mixed planting out of a 

 hundred, is that of distributing the various species over the 

 ground with mathematical precision, and filling up the 

 intervals with nurses, instead of confining the former to the 

 most suitable spots, it is not surprising to find a very large 

 proportion of what ought to be ornamental trees and shrubs 

 existing under conditions which not only prevent them from 

 being seen by the ordinary visitor, but also effectually destroy 

 all that is of an ornamental or useful character about them. 

 There is nothing, for instance, ornamental about a Douglas 

 fir, Wellingtonia, or any other conifer planted alone in the 

 midst of a mass of larch, spruce, or Scots pine, which results 

 into its growing into neither a good timber tree nor a 

 satisfactory specimen. If of faster growth than the trees 

 around it, it develops a gross top-heavy crown, while the 

 lower branches are not killed off clean and effectually, as 

 they would be in a thick wood, but are stifled and crippled 

 in a manner which is ugly in the extreme. If of slower 

 growth than the nurses, again, it is quickly crushed out, 

 and its place might just as well have been filled at the 

 outset by an ordinary timber tree at one-twentieth the 

 expense. 

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