ON WOOD AND PLANTATIONS. 115 



purpose of variety ; if they differ in two or three, they 

 become contrasts : if in all, they are opposite, and seldom 

 group well together. Those, on the contrary, which are 

 of one character, and are distinguished only as the 

 characteristic mark is strongly or faintly impressed upon 

 them, form a beautiful mass, and unity is preserved 

 without sameness."* 



There is another circumstance connected with the 

 color of trees, that will doubtless suggest itself to the 

 improver of taste, the knowledge of which may sometimes 

 be turned to valuable account. We mean the effects 

 produced in the apparent coloring of a landscape by 

 distance, which painters term aerial perspective. Stand- 

 ing at a certain position in a scene, the coloring is deep, 

 rich, and full in the foreground, more tender and mellow 

 in the middle-ground, and softening to a pale tint in the 

 distance. 



" Where to the eye three well marked distances 

 Spread their peculiar coloring, vivid green, 

 Warm brown, and black opake the foreground bears 

 Conspicuous: sober olive coldly marks 

 The second distance ; thence the third declines 

 In softer blue, or lessening still, is lost 

 In fainted purple. When thy taste is call'd 

 To deck a scene where nature's self presents 

 All these distinct gradations, then rejoice 

 As does the Painter, and like him apply 

 Thy colors ; plant thou on each separate part 

 Its proper foliage." 



Advantage may occasionally be taken of this peculiarity 

 in the gradation of color, in Landscape Gardening, by the 

 creation, as it were, of an artificial distance. In grounds 



* Observations on Modern Gardening. 



