ON WOOD AND PLANTATIONS. 105 



different sorts ; and judging from the excellent standard 

 here laid down, it will also be seen how much in the eye 

 of a painter a tree with a beautifully diversified surface, 

 as the oak, surpasses in the composition of a scene one 

 with a very regular and compact surface and outline, as 

 the horse-chestnut. In planting large masses of wood, 

 therefore, or even in forming large groups in park scenery, 

 round-headed trees of the ordinary loose and varied 

 manner of growth common in the majority of forest trees, 

 are greatly to be preferred to all others. When they 

 cover large tracts, as several acres, they convey an 

 emotion of grandeur to the mind ; when they form vast 

 forests of thousands of acres, they produce a, feeling of 

 sublimity; in the landscape garden when they stand 

 alone, or in fine groups, they are graceful or beautiful. 

 While young they have an elegant appearance ; when old 

 they generally become majestic or picturesque. Other 

 trees may suit scenery or scenes of particular and 

 decided characters, but round-headed trees are decidedly 

 the chief adornment of general landscape. 



Spiry-topped trees (Fig. 25) are distinguished by 

 straight leading stems and horizontal branches, which are 

 comparatively small, and taper gradually 

 to a point. The foliage is generally ever- 

 green, and in most trees of this class 

 [Fig. 25. spuy-topped hangg in para u e i or drooping tufts from 



the branches. The various evergreen trees, composing 

 the spruce and fir families, most of the pines, the cedar, 

 and among deciduous trees, the larch, belong to this 

 division. Their hue is generally much darker than that 

 of deciduous trees, and there is a strong similarity, oj 



