1 50 Suggesiions for the Improvement 



9. By selecting them from different nurseries, within a few 

 miles of London, plants of all the kinds of trees required may 

 be had of from 8 ft. to 10 ft. high, or upwards, with the exception 

 of some of the pine and fir tribe, and of some of the American 

 oaks. In planting such trees, the French method of heading 

 the tree down, or closely cutting it in, will require to be borne in 

 mind, rather than the method of keeping on the entire head, re- 

 commended by Sir Henry Steuart ; which, though it will suc- 

 ceed in the cold moist climate of Renfrewshire, where Sir Henry 

 lived, never will answer in the climate of London, or, indeed, in 

 most parts of England, on account of the greater warmth and 

 dryness of the air, and consequent increased evaporation from 

 the leaves. (See the Brussels practice, described in Vol. IL 

 p. 226. and p. 461., and Vol. X. p. 8. ; and also in the Arhoretitm 

 Britannicum^ p. 1383.) 



10. The circumstance of being obliged to plant young trees 

 among the old trees in Kensington Gardens will add greatly to 

 the variety and interest of the scenery ; for though, in grounds 

 laid out in the geometrical style, and especially in the case of 

 straight avenues, it is desirable to have all the trees of the same 

 age and magnitude, yet the reverse of this is the case in planting 

 with a view either to the gardenesque, picturesque, or fac-simile 

 imitation of natural scenery. In self-sown forests, there are trees 

 of all ages ; and, though in gardening it is not desirable to pro- 

 duce fac-simile imitations of such forests, yet those characteristics 

 of them which are most productive of agreeable associations 

 ought to be kept constantly in view. 



11. Though the most rapid mode of drawing up trees with a 

 view to profit is to plant thick, especially in exposed situations; 

 yet the very reverse of thick planting should be followed where 

 beauty is the object, and the climate comparatively mild. No 

 beautiful wood was ever yet seen, in which the trees did not 

 stand at such a distance apart as to show their individual shapes 

 to a person walking through the wood ; and the natural shape 

 of every tree ought to be obvious after the plantation is of four 

 or five years' growth ; thinning being resorted to, wherever 

 equality of height, or the meeting of the branches, has a ten- 

 dency to obliterate it. It is only by this degree of thinness that 

 the fine tufted appearance, which some woods have at a distance, 

 can be produced; an appearance the very i*everse of what is ex- 

 hibited by the two central masses of trees in Kensington Gardens, 

 when looking eastward from the palace directly across the basin 

 of water. 



12. In order to preserve as many full-grown trees as possible 

 in Kensington Gardens, the masses will require to be consider- 

 ably thinned, so as to produce a more vigorous growth in those 

 trees that are left. For the same object, all such trees as are 



